Thinking of using MemberPress for your membership website?

MemberPress is a popular plugin that comes with plenty of features and a support for a number of addons.

But, is it right for your membership business?

In this MemberPress review, we’ll give you a comprehensive breakdown of what’s good, what’s not so good and what could be better.

We cover:

• What qualities set a membership plugin apart
• Do those features exist in MemberPress?
• How simple is it to get started with MemberPress?
• What we think about MemberPress

As the company behind the SureMembers plugin, we know a thing or two about building membership websites.

We’ll use that knowledge for your benefit here.

What To Look For in a Membership Plugin

When searching for the perfect membership plugin, keep these key essentials in mind,

A membership plugin should have:

• Content dripping: Provide content based on a schedule you set.
• Content expiration: Let you control how long members can access specific content.
• Membership management: Make it simple to cancel, pause or modify memberships.
• Discounts and coupons: Offer discounts, coupons or gifts to both existing and new members.
• Flexible payment plans: Provide flexible payment plans such as partial or recurring payments.
• Easy payments: Give you the option to offer multiple payment methods to suit a wider audience.
• Email integration: Work smoothly with popular email services.
• Customization: Allow you to customize the checkout process and essential pages.
• Ease of use: Be easy to work with for anyone regardless of experience.

Considering these essentials, let’s explore whether MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin or not.

MemberPress Overview

MemberPress is a robust membership plugin used widely across the internet.

It excels at handling core functions like content protection, access control, and subscription management.

With just a few clicks, you can set rules to manage content access and decide who sees what and when.

Whether you prefer partial protection, a paywall, or members-only, it’s easy to configure from within the plugin.

It provides full control over where members can go, what they see and when.

You can direct them to a custom dashboard for upgrades, downgrades, subscription pauses, or self-administration of accounts.

You also get built-in email notifications that allow you to create automated messages. Useful for essential tasks such as subscription renewals, credit card expiry, or cart abandonment.

What really stands out about MemberPress is its adaptability.

If you want a straightforward membership management solution, the built-in features are sufficient. If you need more advanced features, the plugin has you covered with tons of addons and integrations.

What People Say About MemberPress

Having been around for over a decade, MemberPress is one of the industry’s most seasoned players.

Let’s see what real users are saying about it.

Here are a couple of reviews from TrustPilot and GetApp:

Review 1 (GetApp)

Review 2 (GetApp)

Review 3 (Trustpilot)

Review 4 (Trustpilot)

That’s what other people think of MemberPress, now let’s share what we think!

MemberPress Features

Here are some key features of MemberPress :

• Create unlimited members and courses
• Flexible content dripping
• Easy to manage subscriptions
• Create coupons to boost sales
• Customize access rules based on your needs
• Built-in support for PayPal, Stripe and Authorize.net
• Reminder management
• Build your own affiliate program
• Built-in tool to handle taxes

As you can see, the plugin has the core features most business needs to run a membership website.

Need some food for thought for your next membership website? We have some amazing ideas that work:

• 30+ membership site examples that created devoted fans
• 14 Best membership website ideas for your business

How To Use MemberPress

Now we’re a little more familiar with MemberPress, let’s explore how simple it is to set up on a WordPress website.

If you’re a beginner, this section will also guide you through how to get started with MemberPress.

Install and Activate the Plugin

Once you sign up, you can download the plugin (in zip file format) from your user dashboard.

Once the plugin file has downloaded, it’s time to install it on your WordPress site.

Log in to your WordPress admin area and navigate to the plugin menu.

Click on the Add New Plugin menu item, then hit the Upload Plugin button at the top.

In the middle of the page, you’ll find the Choose File button.

Click on it and select the MemberPress.zip file you downloaded.

Once you’ve chosen the file from your computer, hit the Install Now button to proceed.

Then hit the blue Activate Plugin button.

On the MemberPress Settings page, head to the License tab to enter and activate your license. This ensures you receive the latest updates each time they are released.

Note: You’ll find the license key inside your MemberPress dashboard.

That’s the basic plugin installation complete. Let’s now set things up.

Set Up a Payment Method

Before adding memberships to your website, it’s crucial to configure the payment methods.

To set up payments, go to the Payments tab within the Settings menu.

You’ll find the Add Payment Method option next to a ‘+’ button. Click on it to explore the available options.

You will see a few options to choose from:

• Stripe
• Offline
• PayPal
• Authorize.net

Each payment method comes with its own specific set of options.

When you choose a method, you’ll need to add its name for internal processing and provide the necessary information.

For instance, if you opt for Stripe, you’ll need to give it a name and select a couple of options.

After that, hit the Connect with Stripe button on the right to link your website with the payment gateway.

A wizard will appear that walks you through the rest of the process.

Once you’re done, click the Update button to save your new payment method.

The settings area includes other tabs where you can input business information or integrate external services.

For example, in the General tab, you can choose currency defaults and configure some SEO options.

Note: When there’s a significant update in MemberPress, it’s highlighted with a red New label.

For instance, when writing this review, we noticed a new option in the Taxes tab called Enable Stripe Tax.

This fresh feature assists in automatically calculating tax when you have Stripe payments enabled.

Set Up Membership Levels

Once you’ve finished configuring the payment method, the next step is to create membership levels.

To do this, click on the Memberships menu in the left sidebar. This action will take you to the membership management area.

Click the Add New button at the top to open the membership editor.

MemberPress uses WordPress default functionality, so this editor resembles a page editor.

Add a title and description and proceed to the Membership Terms widget in the right sidebar.

The widget enables you to set a price for the membership.

Once you input the price, it opens up the Billing Type option. You’ll see a dropdown menu for selecting either a one-time or recurring payment.

If you opt for a recurring payment, you’ll see a few additional choices, such as:

• Interval – Set weekly, monthly, yearly or custom payment intervals.
• Trial Period – Specify the number of days for the trial period, set the price or choose to keep it free.
• Allow Only One Trial – Limit members to a single trial.
• Limit Payment Cycles – Allow users to make a specified number of payments before their subscription expires or provide them with lifetime access.

After you’ve set the price, you might want to tailor the membership options.

Scroll down to locate the Membership Options window, which displays four tabs: Registration, Permission, Price Box, and Advanced.

You can customize a number of things here such as:

• Registration button text
• Thank you page message
• Welcome email members will receive after they sign up
• Payment methods
• Who can sign up for the membership
• Price box
• Membership access URL
• Login redirect URL

If you wish to include a featured image for this membership, you can do so from the sidebar.

Once everything is in order, click the Publish button to make the membership level live.

Create Rules for Memberships

Rules give you the power to determine how members engage with your content.

To achieve this, click on Rules in the left sidebar. This action will open the rules management page.

Click the Add New button at the top to create a new rule.

After the title screen, you’ll encounter three widgets: Content & Access, Drip/Expiration, and Unauthorized Access.

Content & Access allows you to:

• Choose the type of content you want to protect. It could be a post/page, category, tag, a group or entire content.
• Set the access restriction based on conditions.

Drip/Expiration includes the option to:

• Choose how you want to release content. Include a period after a member registers, a specific date, or after a member makes a purchase.
• Specify when you want the content to expire: after a member registers, on a specific date, or after a member makes a purchase.

Unauthorized Access empowers you to override global settings for handling unauthorized access to content protected by any particular rule.

Addons and Integrations

MemberPress seamlessly integrates with a variety of third-party services and plugins.

For instance, if your target audience includes WeChat users, you can enable payments through the China Payments Plugin addon.

If you’re switching to MemberPress from another plugin and need to import existing members, the native importer plugin can help.

Simply navigate to the Add-ons page and click the Install Add-on button within your desired widget to install it.

MemberPress Pricing

MemberPress provides four plans designed to cater to various audiences.

The Basic plan, suitable for a single website, is priced at $359 per year.

This plan is ideal for solopreneurs. It allows you to manage unlimited members, memberships, and restrict content according to your preferences.

However, if you need advanced features such as content dripping, multiple coaches, Taxjar integration, or order bumps, you’ll need a higher-tier plan.

Here’s a summary of the MemberPress plans:

MemberPress Review: Our Experience

MemberPress has a long-standing presence that makes it a reliable choice for many membership business requirements.

Whether you’re selling courses, podcasts, or exclusive content, the plugin handles it all.

One standout feature is its user-friendly setup which makes it accessible for beginners with no prior experience.

You won’t find yourself grappling with complex tasks like connecting payment methods or creating rules and groups – MemberPress streamlines the entire setup process.

It sounds like a perfect solution, but there are areas we think need attention. We are in 2025 with more diverse needs than ever before.

Today, it’s more about simplicity, modern features, customization and great user experience.

With MemberPress, you have to rely on addons and third-party plugins for additional features.

Tasks such as generating a PDF invoice, incorporating a captcha feature, or enabling members to download content may require separate addons.

Unfortunately, many addons add database tables which can gradually increase the database size over time.

This, in turn, adds to the effort required to maintain an optimized database.

If you ever decide to remove MemberPress, it might require expert assistance to uninstall the base plugin and addons and remove the database tables they added.

We would also like the freedom to customize member areas and forms to better align with individual needs and use payment methods of our choice.

MemberPress: The Pros

The things we like about MemberPress include:

• Easy to set up
• No transaction fees or monthly fee
• Built-in tax handling
• Tons of customizable email templates
• Comprehensive reporting to monitor everything
• Segment memberships with groups
• Highly flexible content dripping and expiration modules
• Responsive customer support

MemberPress: The Cons

There are a couple of things MemberPress could do better in our opinion:

• It gets pricer with more features
• Essential features like forums and order bumps are only available with more expensive plans
• Popular payment gateways such are Mollie or Razorpay are missing
• Lack of customization features keeps your branding needs unfulfilled

Comparing MemberPress With SureMembers

Membership businesses have no shortage of solutions as there are plenty of good WordPress membership plugins out there.

Let’s spice up our MemberPress review by comparing it side by side with a worthy alternative. This will give you a better idea of how MemberPress stacks up.

Let’s introduce SureMembers!

SureMembers

This new premium WordPress membership plugin has quickly gained a following.

SureMembers comes packed with features like creating content paywalls, drip feeding content, and managing membership levels.

It offers plenty of customization options to fulfill your branding needs.

Plus, it’s fully compatible with popular page builders like Elementor, Spectra and others which gives you extra wings.

It’s a great fit for any membership business, and it gets extra support from its two companions: OttoKit and SureCart.

Now let’s expand our comparison!

Our objective is to find out whether MemberPress ticks all the essential feature boxes. We’ll also assess the same for its rival.

Essential Features	MemberPress	SureMembers
Content dripping
Content expiry
Membership management
Discounts and coupons
Flexible payment plans
Multiple payment methods
Email integration
Login page customization
Redirect rules
Customized menu visibility
User roles

Curious how SureMembers works? Here’s an in-depth review that explains everything.

Is MemberPress for You?

MemberPress is a reliable, feature-packed plugin that gets the job done.

Its core functionality is effective in most scenarios, and for additional needs, there’s a wide range of addons and integrations.

You can create access groups and rules however you want to protect your content.

The basic version is a good fit for small businesses. But if you need advanced features like community-building, you’ll need to upgrade to a pricier plan.

This might be a deal breaker, especially if you’re looking for complete customization, stylish design, and various payment options.

If you’re seeking a membership plugin that fulfills all your requirements at less than half the price of MemberPress, consider SureMembers.

If you want to see how SureMembers can create a fully functional membership site, this video is a great resource.

What’s your choice for a membership plugin on your website? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Looking for the best way to build a portfolio website?

A portfolio website gives you your own dedicated space to promote your skills, services and previous work. It’s your shop window on the internet – once you build your portfolio site, potential clients will be able to more easily find you, see exactly what you do, learn what you offer and feel confident in hiring you.

Because of that, you want to put your best foot forward with your portfolio site, which is what this post is about.

We’ll show you how you can use the popular WordPress software to build your own professional portfolio website that looks something like below – no matter what space you’re working in (the example is for freelance writing – but you can easily adjust it to other types of work!).

Best of all, you’ll be able to build your portfolio website and customize every part of it without needing any technical knowledge or even needing to write a single line of code.

Seven Key Components of a Portfolio Website

One of the great things about creating a portfolio site is that you have the chance to really make it your own.

There are also some important components that your portfolio website should have if you want to maximize your efforts. Think of these as the basic building blocks upon which you can expand to make your site unique.

1. Strong CTA on Your Homepage

A Call To Action, (CTA), is the most important element that you want your visitors to see after landing on your portfolio site. For most portfolio websites, the CTA will be for visitors to hire you and/or get in touch to talk.

Typically, you’ll want to implement your CTA with a big eye-catching element near the top of your page.

You can see these CTAs in almost all of the portfolio website examples from above. For example, Kristin Falkner’s main CTA is to “Get a Quote”:

2. Examples of Your Work

One of the biggest reasons to create a portfolio website is that it gives you a place to showcase all the awesome work you’ve done. When people see what you can do, they’ll be confident that you’re the right person for the job.

Bill Erickson has a really well-done “Recent Projects” page that includes links, a brief explanation of what Bill and his team did, and some eye-catching screenshots of the final product:

In the tutorial, we’ll show you how you can use the WP Portfolio plugin to create your own eye-catching showcase.

3. The Services That You Offer

Visitors want to know exactly what you offer so that they can be sure you can do what they need. For example, “WordPress developer” can mean a lot of things:

• Do you only build websites from scratch?
• Do you offer website customizations?
• Do you code custom plugins?
• And so on…

Your services page should make your services clear and explain exactly how you can help.

4. Your Background/Experience (an “About” Page)

Your past work speaks most highly to what you can do, but most people also want to know about your background and experience. Not only does this help them decide if you’re the right person for the job, but it also gives you a chance to build a connection with potential clients and stand out from the crowd.

5. Testimonials

Showing testimonials from past clients is a great way to build trust with potential future clients. Seeing that other people were happy with your work gives people the confidence that you can make them happy too.

Josh Garofalo does a great job of including lots of very specific testimonials on his portfolio:

6. Contact Information

If all the other elements in your portfolio are doing their job, visitors will want to get in touch with you to talk about hiring you.

To make that easy for them, you want to have a dedicated contact page that showcases the best way to get in touch with you, ideally with a contact form.

This page is also a great opportunity to streamline your processes and avoid wasted communication by addressing important questions people might have when getting in touch with you.

For example, Kristin Falkner’s contact page has a FAQ section alongside the contact form that helps her avoid answering the same questions over and over, such as her average turnaround time.

7. Blog

Having a blog is optional, but it can be a great way to market yourself and showcase your skills and knowledge to potential clients.

By starting a blog you can generate organic traffic from search engines, social media and other sources while also demonstrating your experience in more depth via the content that you create.

The downside of a blog, of course, is that it’s time-consuming. So if you’re already busy with work and you can’t invest the time into creating regular blog content, you might want to just skip it.

How to Create a Portfolio Website Using WordPress

Now, let’s get into how you can create your own awesome portfolio site using WordPress and some useful extensions.

For this tutorial, we’ll only assume that you’re able to purchase hosting and install the WordPress software. Don’t worry, though – if you haven’t gone that far yet, we have some other useful tutorials that cover those steps.

First off, check out our post with some of the best WordPress hosts and some tips for choosing. You need WordPress hosting to power your portfolio website, and this post will help you find the right option for your needs and budget.

Second, you can follow our guide on how to make a WordPress website to get up and running with a basic website. All you need is a fresh WordPress install to follow this tutorial – so, you can just complete steps one, two, and three in that other guide and then come back here for the portfolio-specific parts.

If you have a fresh WordPress install ready to go, here’s how to turn it into a business-boosting portfolio website.

Step 1: Install the Astra Theme and Import a Portfolio Demo Site

The first step in building your portfolio website is to install a WordPress theme. If you’re not familiar with themes, they basically give you a quick way to control the overall design of your website.

We recommend our Astra theme for two big reasons:

1. It’s free – keeping costs down never hurts, right?
2. It includes hundreds of website templates that you can import, including lots of portfolio examples. All you need to do is customize the content and you’ll instantly have a professionally-designed portfolio website.

For example, you can import the Freelance Copywriter demo site to instantly make your portfolio look like this:

Don’t worry! While the name of the demo is “Freelance Copywriter”, you can easily adapt it to work as a portfolio for other niches. Or, you could choose another one of Astra’s many portfolio website templates.

Recommended Astra’s website templates:

• Personal website designs and templates
• Photographer website templates and designs
• Freelancer website templates

Here’s how to do it:

First, install the free Astra theme from WordPress.org by going to Appearance → Themes → Add New in your WordPress dashboard and searching for “Astra”.

Then, click the Install button and make sure to activate the theme.

Once you activate Astra, you should see a prompt to install the Starter Templates plugin, which is what gives you access to the portfolio website templates.

Click the Get Started button to do so. If you don’t see the prompt, you can find it by going to Appearance → Astra Options.

Next, you’ll be prompted to choose a page builder, which controls the editor that your chosen demo site’s content uses.

For this tutorial, we recommend choosing Elementor, though you can pick a different editor if you prefer.

Now, you’ll see a list of hundreds of Astra demo sites that are built with Elementor. Feel free to browse all of the demo sites, as you might find one that you love.

For this guide, we’ll use the Freelance Copywriter demo, which you can find by searching for it:

Click on it to select it. Then, choose the option to Import Complete Site:

In the popup prompt, leave all the defaults checked and then click Import:

After a short wait, the import process will finish and your site should look exactly like the demo.

Step 2: Edit the Portfolio Website

Now, it’s time to edit the demo content to make it your own.

To make this easy to do, this Astra demo site is built with the Elementor page builder plugin, which gives you a visual, drag-and-drop interface to edit and customize everything – no coding required!

To get started, click on the Pages option in your dashboard.

Then, hover over the page you want to edit and click Edit with Elementor.

This will launch Elementor’s visual, drag-and-drop interface. To customize the text, all you do is click and type on the live preview. To customize or move other items, you can click on them and drag them around.

If you need some help working with the Elementor interface, you can check out our detailed Elementor tutorial.

Once you’re finished, make sure to save your changes. Then, you can repeat the same process for the other pages on your site, such as the About page, Contact page and any others you have.

Don’t worry about editing the page that showcases your work, though, because we’re going to use a special tool for that in the next section.

Step 3: Add a User-Friendly Portfolio to Showcase Your Work

Because one of the primary functions of your portfolio website is to showcase your work, you want to make sure that you nail this part of your website. The best part is that you can easily showcase your work with any portfolio WordPress plugin.

To do that, you can use the WP Portfolio plugin, which helps you on both the frontend and backend of your site:

• Frontend – You can create a more user-friendly showcase for your visitors and let them browse your work to find the items that are most relevant to them.
• Backend – You’ll be able to more easily manage your portfolio items. You can easily add new items, edit old ones, choose different items to display in different spots, etc.

To see some examples of the different types of portfolios you can build, check out these links:

• Website portfolio
• Image portfolio
• Video portfolio

To set it up, purchase WP Portfolio and then install it on your site by going to Plugins → Add New and uploading the zip file.

Add Portfolio Items

A portfolio item is an individual piece of work that you want to showcase. It could be a website you built, an image you designed, a blog post you wrote, a video you created, or whatever it is that you create.

To add your first portfolio item:

1. Go to WP Portfolio → Add New:
2. Give it a title
3. Choose the type of portfolio item from the drop-down
4. Click Add Portfolio Item

Now, you’ll be able to customize that portfolio item to add more information – you can even customize the CTA that displays when people view an individual item.

If you have a lot of portfolio items, you can also use categories and tags to organize them into different sections. Your visitors will be able to use these categories to filter out specific portfolio items.

Once you’re happy with everything, make sure to Publish it:

Repeat the process to add more portfolio items as needed.

Display Portfolio

Once you’ve added all of your portfolio items, you can display your portfolio on your site by using the [wp_portfolio] shortcode.

For example, create a new page called “Portfolio” and add the shortcode using a Shortcode block:

To change the style and layout of your front-end portfolio, you can go to WP Portfolio → Settings → Style.

And that’s it!

You just created your very own portfolio website using WordPress, the Astra theme, and the WP Portfolio plugin!

Benefits of Creating a Portfolio Site

If you’re still on the fence about making a portfolio website, here are a few of the biggest reasons to make the jump and launch your site:

• Find new clients – You’ll make it easier for potential clients to discover you via Google searches, social media, word of mouth (much easier to share a link), and so on.
• Brand yourself – You can brand yourself as an expert in your space, which opens up a lot of new opportunities.
• Build trust – It’s a lot easier to build trust because you can showcase your actual work, share testimonials from happy clients.
• Simplify admin and save time – You can share details about your processes, ask questions on forms and offer FAQs. All of these can help reduce repeat questions from potential clients.

Portfolio Website Examples

To get your creative juices flowing before we get to the tutorial, we’re going to share some real-world examples of good and successful portfolio websites from a few different niches:

• Freelance WordPress developers
• UX designers
• Graphic designers
• Freelance writers/copywriters

One of the things you’ll notice is that the general aesthetic of portfolio websites changes depending on the niche. For example, graphic designers often have more “whimsical” portfolios with more focus on unique design (as you’d expect). On the other hand, freelance WordPress developers usually have more straightforward, “by-the-book” portfolios.

Freelance WordPress Developer Portfolio Examples

Bill Erickson

Phil Owen

Kristin Falkner

UI/UX Designer Portfolio Examples

Stef Ivanov

Adrien Gervaix

Naresh Kumar

Graphic Designer Portfolio Examples

Casey Coyle

Fedor Shkliarau

Taylor Dunham

Freelance Writer/Copywriter Portfolio Examples

Josh Garofalo

Joel Klettke

Elna Cain

Create Your WordPress Portfolio Website Today!

If you provide any types of services to clients, having a portfolio site is essential to build your own brand, showcase your work and connect with clients.

To quickly create a professional-looking portfolio website, you can use the free Astra theme and one of its many starter websites.

Then, to add an optimized page to showcase your work, you can pair Astra with the WP Portfolio plugin.

Do you still have any questions about how to build a portfolio website? Let us know in the comments section!

Looking for some real-world LearnDash examples to inspire your own eLearning website?

LearnDash is one of the most popular WordPress LMS plugins, and it’s used by both huge organizations like Johns Hopkins University and Collibra, as well as smaller brands like Yoast and ProBlogger.

In this post, we’ve collected ten great LearnDash examples of all sizes, including some neat implementations like a smartphone app to help course takers connect to LearnDash content and a bunch of different pricing approaches.

Ready to get inspired? Let’s dive in…

10 Websites Using LearnDash

1. LearnDash Academy

LearnDash Academy is not a live LearnDash course. Instead, it’s a free importable demo site built with the Astra WordPress theme exclusively for LearnDash.

Basically, you can make this LearnDash example your own just by clicking a few buttons and without spending a time.

Play around with it and see if it’s the right fit for your own course.

Recommended Reading 1: eLearning website designs and templates

Recommended Reading 2: Collection of School Website Templates

2. Johns Hopkins University/TCI University

Johns Hopkins University, one of the world’s largest research universities, uses LearnDash to power the course content for their TCI University project. This is a major urban health initiative backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health.

In addition to using LearnDash to deliver content, TCI University also has its own smartphone app powered by AppPresser. It allows users to connect to LearnDash content via their smartphones.

This latter feature is a great example of how you can take your LearnDash content beyond your website.

You can head here to explore the course content for free.

3. Bionic Turtle

Bionic Turtle provides people with resources to help them pass the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) exam, including instructional videos and interactive quizzes.

To deliver that course content, Bionic Turtle uses WordPress and LearnDash.

Course takers can sign up for a basic account for free. After that, they’ll pay a single subscription fee for access to all the course content. There are different tiers and levels for the subscription, which shows you how you can customize LearnDash’s pricing plans to meet your needs.

Bionic Turtle also uses LearnDash’s WooCommerce integration so that they can power their checkout system with WooCommerce.

4. ProBlogger Courses

ProBlogger is one of the oldest and most popular blogs about blogging.

With ProBlogger Courses, the ProBlogger team offers two courses to help learners create a better blog. Both are powered by LearnDash.

One course is free, while the other costs $99, which makes this one a good example of how you can use LearnDash to deliver both free and paid course content.

5. Michael Hyatt Courses

Michael Hyatt helps people become better leaders in their work and lives.

Courses play a big part in letting Michael do that, and he uses LearnDash to power those courses.

Michael uses a unique approach, separating his courses into their own domains/WordPress installs, each powered by WordPress and LearnDash.

6. Collibra University

Collibra is one of the leaders in data governance, with a billion-dollar valuation to back that claims up.

As part of that, they also offer courses and certifications via Collibra University. These courses help people learn about data governance and achieve different levels of certification.

To power these courses, Collibra uses WordPress and LearnDash. They also integrate the course system with BuddyPress, as well, which is a neat way to add more in-depth profiles and social community to LearnDash.

7. OptinMonster University

OptinMonster is a popular lead generation and popup tool.

At the OptinMonster University, the OptinMonster team shows course takers how to grow email lists, reduce shopping cart abandonment, and more. And, as you’d expect, they do it using WordPress and LearnDash.

One unique thing about OptinMonster University is that, rather than selling courses directly or allowing free signups, the OptinMonster team gives free access to people who subscribe to the OptinMonster service.

You can browse all the courses here, but you’ll need to be an OptinMonster subscriber to see the actual course content.

8. Online Mastery Academy

Online Mastery helps people “plan, build, and promote” their businesses.

At the Online Mastery Academy, they offer over 30 courses to help participants build websites, learn about WordPress, start running Facebook Ads, and more.

Rather than selling individual courses, Online Mastery uses a subscription model where course takers can unlock all the courses for one monthly subscription, which is another good example of the flexible pricing models you can create with LearnDash.

The Online Mastery Academy also relies on the Astra theme to power the underlying design for their courses.

9. Fit Father Project

As the name suggests, Fit Father Project offers courses and workout plans to help “busy fathers over 40” get in shape. 

Beyond being a great example of how choosing a targeted niche can help you stand out, Fit Father Project also uses LearnDash to power its “Society” subdomain, which is the “The Fit Father Project Program Site” where members can access subscriber-only content.

Unfortunately, only paying subscribers get to look behind the scenes, but you can learn more about Fit Father Project’s LearnDash setup in this LearnDash case study.

10. Yoast Academy

Yoast makes the most popular WordPress SEO plugin by a large margin. But beyond helping people implement better SEO via their plugin, the Yoast team also teaches people to be better at SEO and copywriting via the Yoast Academy.

Yoast Academy sells premium courses and uses LearnDash to manage and deliver that course content to learners.

One interesting thing about Yoast’s LearnDash implementation is that they offer different course tiers, including an overall subscription that grants people access to all courses for one price, as well as coaching/feedback upsells.

If you’d like to see how the Yoast Academy functions on the inside, you can sign up for a free trial course.

Create Your Own LearnDash Course Today!

Have these examples inspired you to get started with your own LearnDash course?

With its built-in LearnDash integration, Astra is the perfect WordPress theme to use as the base for your LearnDash site. You’ll not only be able to customize your site’s design in general, but you’ll also be able to customize your LearnDash course content using the real-time WordPress Customizer.

To help you get started with Astra and LearnDash, you can follow our guide on how to create an eLearning website with Astra and LearnDash.

You are incredibly creative and can create beautiful jewelry. Now, you have an urge to apply your creative instinct to make jewelry commercially and turn this passion into a great revenue-earning venture.

You are likely full of ambition and you have countless questions, such as:

• Which items should your online jewelry business start with, rings, bracelets, earrings, anklets, or everything?
• Should you design it yourself or get it from a manufacturer?
• How can you open an online store?
• Or perhaps the most common question beginners with limited starting budgets ask is, “how to start a jewelry business at home?”

Worry not. You’re in good hands!

After reading this article, you will be able to build a fully operational jewelry store and be able to begin selling your creations to the world.

Statista predicts the global jewelry industry is expected to reach $307 billion by 2026.

Sound encouraging?

Let’s begin with our step by step guide.

How To Start a Jewelry Business Online (7 Steps)

Whether you plan to establish a small jewelry business or build a mega online store, a well thought jewelry business plan can keep you ahead of competitors.

In addition, it is important to register your business as an LLC to protect your business from liability and to obtain tax benefits. If you choose the best state to form an LLC, you can further enhance these benefits and ensure a smoother registration process. Planning now is better than waiting for failure to reveal its causes.

It’s better to spend some time now than trying to discover the causes of failure later.

Step 1. Research Your Online Jewelry Market

It’s imperative to conduct thorough market research. It will save you a lot of time and effort that you can spend on your business.

As an initial step, you can read blogs and join forums and relevant social media groups to build your understanding of the industry.

Create a list of pointers, gradually fill it with more queries, and keep looking for the answers. Eventually, your research will evolve into a goldmine of data.

Your initial findings can include:

• Market trends
• Existing product lines
• Spending volume of potential customers
• Average and total sales in a specific period
• Customer pain points
• Current products and quality issues
• Strengths and weaknesses of your competitors

As you dig deep, you will come across several other queries on your way.

At this stage, you will probably find Google trends a very helpful free market research tool.

The image below shows how the earrings search has performed over the last 5 years in the USA. It peaks every holiday season in December.

That means demand for earrings rises tremendously in the days leading up to the holiday season.

This single screenshot tells something valuable for someone who wants to start with the earrings business.

You can find a lot more information about the industry, demand and related queries to expand your search as you move ahead.

If you are looking to target the US market, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the US Census Bureau (UCB) can also help you in your market research.

The screenshot below shows a number of relevant links against the term jewelry on the BLS site.

Step 2. Choose Your Jewelry Business Niche

After exploring the market potential, it’s time to figure out which niche best suits you.

Knowing about your potential customers will help you develop a solid business plan.

Do you want your online jewelry business to cater to everything people like to wear, or are you more focused on building a business around something more specific?

Do you have a specialization? Do you create specific jewelry? Broches? Rings? Bracelets? If so, there’s your niche.

If you’re more of a generalist, you may have to narrow your focus, at least to begin with.

How about only dealing in diamond wedding rings? It appears to be a small audience, but this can help you fully satisfy a targeted niche.

Understanding your target audience is crucial for success. Are you targeting fashion-forward millennials, luxury jewelry enthusiasts, or perhaps eco-conscious consumers? Each group has different preferences and buying behaviors that will influence your jewelry designs and marketing approach.

Whether you want to design yourself or buy from a supplier, most of us would be tempted to target every customer out there with everything they ever wanted to chase huge revenues.

That does sound tempting, but if you are starting with a small budget, trying to satisfy everyone isn’t going to work.

Knowing the audience size and demographics will help finalize your niche.

Use data and research to guide you to figure out what to design and sell within a particular market in order to make a reasonable profit.

Step 3. Jewelry Production and Sourcing Strategy

You may have been designing your own jewelry for a while, but doing it on a large scale while meeting market standards can require a big budget, high precision, quality and commitment.

You can take classes or courses to perfect the skill or hire a designer if you think you won’t have time to do everything yourself.

If that doesn’t fit your plan, find a reputed manufacturer to buy items from. You can also consider reaching out to a wholesaler or a supplier in the local or international market.

Aliexpress, Alibaba, Fashion Bella, and Azeera are a few options.

If you use suppliers, you will typically need to buy jewelry pieces in bulk to get a reasonable price.

You can also think about the dropshipping model if you don’t have the money for large orders.

The drop shipping model will give you less control over product quality but can provide enough product to satisfy projected demand.

Step 4. Plan Your Jewelry Business Budget

Budgeting is crucial when creating a business plan. You should be very clear if your startup needs external funding or if you have the cash available to support the business.

Your budget will vary depending on the niche and the type of jewelry you want to deal in, such as gold, diamond, bronze, or glass.

You can simplify this process by noting down the following:

• If you want to design jewelry yourself, will you need extra tools and equipment?
• Even if you like to deal with a supplier, you may need capital to maintain inventory.
• Do you plan to start the business alone from home, or does it require a team, a coworking space, and other general recurring overheads?
• You may need some licenses and permits, so don’t forget to include this cost.
• There will be a marketing cost as well.

Budgeting is a key requirement for any business, no matter how modest. The more you know about costs, the better you can plan for the future.

Step 5. Create Your Jewelry Brand Identity

It’s time to name your business. Take your time and try to be creative.

If you’re one of the lucky ones, you’ll already have a name in mind. If you’re not, you have some work to do!

Your business name should resonate well with your audience and reflect the activity you want to carry out.

It will be the face of your company, so it should be short, unique, and easy to pronounce.

You also need to make sure whatever name you pick should be available to use legally and not already in use or protected.

Since you plan to create an online jewelry business, you not only need to come up with a name that works, but the domain name must be available too.

Given that most of the good names are already taken, that’s quite the challenge!

Once you are done with the brainstorming, get your desired name registered and secure the domain before someone else takes it.

We’ll talk more about domain names in a minute.

Step 6. Build Your Online Jewelry Website with WordPress

This section will make it easy for you to start a store from scratch. You will need WordPress and a jewelry theme that integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce.

If you haven’t been involved in designing websites before, fear not. We will make it as easy as possible.

There are several solutions for building online stores, including paid and free options. We have found WordPress to be the best solution, which is why we use it.

It’s free, easy to use and provides full control over your website.

6.1 Get a domain

You have made a business plan and finalized a name for your online business. It’s time to get the domain name registered before someone else does.

If you are unfamiliar with domain names, they are what you type in the web browser to open a website.

For example, to Google something, you enter www.google.com in your web browser to open the search engine homepage.

If you want to read about in great length on this topic, we have an in-depth tutorial on domain names.

There is a small fee you pay to a domain registrar that usually falls between $5 – $20 per year.

You can buy the domain from NameCheap, Google domains or Domain.com.

6.2 Buy hosting

Once the domain is registered, it’s time to buy web hosting.

Web hosting is where you store your website so it is accessible on the web. You pay annually for hosting like you do for your domain name. In fact, you can buy both from the same provider for a single fee.

You can choose any hosting company you like. There are plenty of them, such as SiteGround, Cloudways, or Hostinger.

Each can provide dedicated WordPress hosting plans that are suitable for your online jewelry business.

For example, Hostinger offers a free domain name for the first year.

They also have an easy WordPress installation process that anyone can use regardless of experience level.

6.3 Install WordPress

After buying the hosting plan, you need to install WordPress on your domain.

Inside the Hostinger dashboard, you should find the WordPress Auto Installer tool to assist you through the process.

With this tool, you can install WordPress in under a minute.

Soon as you are done with WordPress installation, you will get a default homepage and dashboard similar to the image below.

WordPress is a powerful yet easily manageable content management system (CMS) that delivers the options you need to build a store.

There are hundreds of popular themes and plugins you can install on your website to transform it into anything you want.

6.4 Install Astra and WooCommerce

For this article, we will pick the cream of the crop combination, Astra and WooCommerce.

Astra is a free WordPress theme and one of the best multipurpose WordPress themes around, with over 1.7 million installations. It integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, the best eCommerce plugin for WordPress.

Astra comes with prebuilt Starter Templates, including some captivating premium jewelry store layouts.

To install Astra from the WordPress repository, you first need to access theWordPress admin area.

Do that by typing in www.yoursite.com/wp-login.php and entering the username and password you created when setting everything up.

From the sidebar menu, go to Appearance > Themes and press the Add New button.

Type Astra in the search box to locate it. Install and Activate the theme.

Astra offers hundreds of predesigned templates you can import from the Starter Templates library. Each template packs essential pages for your website that avoid the hassle of designing and creating them.

Let’s import a template from the library.

6.5 Import a predesigned Astra template

Astra includes over 230 professionally designed templates that are fully functioning websites. They are the easiest way to build an online store.

Go to Appearance > Astra Options.

Install the Astra Importer Plugin that you will find in the right panel. It will activate itself and take you to the next screen.

Press the blue color button “Build Your Website Now.”

Astra is compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, and Beaver page builders. You can select any of them on the next screen, and the library will show relevant templates.

The next screen will display Astra’s Starter Templates library. You can scroll down to find your desired template or use the search box to save time.

You can also select a different page builder later from the top right corner of the library page.

I recommend buying a premium template that offers tons of valuable features that are helpful for your online business.

You can see in the screenshot below that your jewelry store is ready soon as you import it to your website.

We will continue with the Block Editor (Gutenberg) and select the Cosmetics Store Starter Template.

Just click on it, and the import wizard will assist you through the entire process.

You can upload a custom logo and change the color scheme and website fonts when you import.

The final step will ask for some essential information. Enter your name, email, and the rest of the data so Astra can import relevant content for your site.

Once you start the process, you will notice it preparing all essential plugins, including WooCommerce, forms and pages that you otherwise need to do manually. Astra makes it all effortless for you.

Click on View Your Website after the process is complete. It should take less than a minute.

There you go. You have created a professionally designed eCommerce store without spending a dollar on website development!

6.6 Familiarize yourself with WordPress plugins

You can browse your new website through the top menu. You should find the Home, Shop, Testimonial, About, and Contact pages the import process has created for you.

They are all essential components for an online jewelry business.

You can effortlessly replace images, product names, and descriptions with jewelry-related content. We will return to it in a few minutes.

First, we should go inside the WordPress admin area to explore some newly added features.

You can notice Astra added WooCommerce, Products, Analysis, Marketing, and WebForms pages while it imported the template.

Besides the WooCommerce plugin, Astra installed Checkout Plugins, Variation Swatches and Spectra. All three of them enhance the user experience on your website.

We will shortly discuss Checkout and Variation Swatches in detail.

For now, let’s appreciate how effortlessly Astra performed a complex task and upgraded our website!

6.7 Edit pages

The default pages are great, but they may not include everything you want to include. Let’s edit them so they fit your needs perfectly.

Go to Pages > All Pages and navigate to Home.

Click on the Edit button to open the WordPress editor for this page.

Click on the image you need to replace. It will show relevant tools in the right sidebar panel. Tap the Style tab to find the option to replace/remove the hero image.

You can upload your own image or use a high-resolution free image from Pixabay, which integrates nicely with Astra.

You can repeat the process for other images on predesigned pages to make it look like the jewelry store you want.

Next, you should add a new product. You can also edit the existing one. We recommend editing a few and adding new products to learn more about what your jewelry store can do with the free modules.

6.8 Add a product

A store isn’t a store without products. Let’s add one now.

To add a new product, go to Products > Add New.

When the WordPress editor opens, enter the name of the jewelry item and the feature image. You can also enter a description in the editor part.

Choose a relevant category, add the price and press the publish button.

You can do a lot more with products in the editing mode, such as offering discounts, setting variables, or inventory limits. But we want to simply add it for our tutorial.

You can browse to the shop page where you can see products giving a standard eCommerce look for an online jewelry business.

Now that you have those jewelry items on your shop page, what next?

You will need a payment processing tool to carry out transactions on your site. Your customers should be able to pay easily, which is a surefire way of increasing your profit.

6.9 Add payment system: Checkout Plugins – Stripe for WooCommerce

Among many solutions that WooCommerce supports through different plugins, Checkout Plugins – Stripe for WooCommerce is the easiest method to accept payments through cards, Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Without a payment method added to your website, your cart will look like the following screenshot on the checkout page.

If there is no way a payment can be processed, your users will leave the site immediately.

Fortunately, we already have the Stripe for WooCommerce installed, which came as part of the Astra Starter Template plugin installation.

Let’s configure the plugin and enable the payment gateway on our jewelry store.

Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and click on Settings under the plugin title “Checkout Plugins – Stripe for WooCommerce.”

It will take you to the payments tab of the WooCommerce plugin, where you need to click on the blue Connect with Stripe button.

Getting started with Stripe is easy. The step by step wizard is a simple way to create an account and proceed with the verification process.

Once your account is created, you will see populated payment fields inside the WooCommerce payment tab.

On the product page, customers can now see an active payment option with the button Pay via Stripe.

With the payment gateway active, you can also limit the cards to accept payment.

Go to WooCommerce > Setting > Payments > Credit Cards and choose the cards you want to accept in your online store.

6.10 Variations: Variation Swatches for WooCommerce

By default, WooCommerce provides the dropdown field for product variations where users can select different sizes, colors, or anything you set.

Though it does the job, it is far from impressive and not particularly user-friendly, especially on small mobile screens.

Users like easy interactions. They would love to stay and buy if the options are visible and easy to read on any screen size.

The Variation Swatches for WooCommerce plugin allows you to customize how your product variations appear on the product page.

When Variation Swatches for WooCommerce get activated, it expands the WooCommerce menu. It adds several customization options you can use to change how variations appear on the product page.

The below image shows how you can see a visible difference only after activating the plugin. You can enhance the user experience with a value change on the setting page.

Step 7: Market Your Ecommerce Jewelry Brand

Now that you’ve successfully set up your online jewelry store, it’s essential to attract customers and grow your business. With effective marketing strategies, you can boost jewelry sales and build a strong online presence. Follow these actionable steps to confidently market your jewelry company:

7.1 Use Social Media to Showcase Your Jewelry

Social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook are perfect for highlighting your handmade and vintage jewelry.

Post high-quality photos regularly, share behind-the-scenes insights, and encourage your audience to share their purchases online.

Studies show that 54% of consumers use social media to research products.

Action step: Create engaging content consistently and actively interact with your followers to build trust and loyalty.

7.2 Start Building an Email List

Email marketing remains one of the most powerful marketing channels available, offering an impressive ROI of $42 for every $1 spent (source). Offer incentives such as exclusive discounts or early access to new collections to encourage sign-ups.

Action step: Regularly send personalized emails showcasing current trends, special offers, and updates to keep your audience engaged.

7.3 Engage Your Audience with Content Marketing

Content marketing helps you attract and retain customers by providing valuable and relevant content. Launch a blog on your website, covering topics like jewelry care, styling tips for handmade jewelry, and the appeal of vintage jewelry. Businesses that blog regularly attract 55% more website visitors.

Action step: Publish SEO-optimized content consistently to increase organic traffic and establish authority in your niche.

7.4 Deliver Exceptional Customer Service

Excellent customer service not only drives repeat purchases but also generates positive customer feedback and referrals. Remember, 96% of consumers say customer service heavily influences their brand loyalty.

Action step: Respond promptly to inquiries, resolve issues efficiently, and continuously seek feedback to improve your services.

7.5 Partner with Influencers and Brand Ambassadors

Collaborating with influencers expands your reach to their established follower base, aligning with your target market. Provide your jewelry items to influencers whose style and audience match your brand. Influencer marketing can yield an ROI up to 11 times higher than traditional marketing methods.

Action step: Identify and connect with influencers who genuinely resonate with your brand for authentic promotion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Starting an online jewelry business

Jewelry designing and selling is a great way to share your artistic and entrepreneurial skills with the world. You can create impressive designs and showcase them on your online store.

Whatever jewelry product line you want to start with, it’s essential to develop a solid business plan before setting up your store. Every business needs a firm foundation and a plan forms a key part of that.

You can follow this in-depth tutorial and begin your business journey with confidence!

Do you run a business? Have any tips you’d like to share? Please don’t forget to share your experience with us in the comments section.

Have you wondered how to clear the WordPress cache? In this article, we’ll show how to clear the WordPress cache using various caching plugins, including WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache, and W3 Total Cache.

Let’s jump right in!

What is Caching?

Before we dive into how to clear WordPress cache, first, let’s quickly explain what WordPress caching is.

In short, caching is like when the waiter or waitress at your favorite restaurant remembers your order, so you don’t have to repeat yourself each time.

Your browser or the website saves a copy of the page so the next time it needs to be loaded, everything is ready to go.

It’s a method of speeding up a website and delivering the page you want faster than loading it every time you visit.

WordPress caching plugins cache pages so your website doesn’t have to look up, build and send pages all the time. This results in faster page load times.

Browsers cache web pages so they can load recently viewed pages much faster.

Your web host can also use caching, to help speed things up even further.

As all types of caching are important, we’ll cover all types of cache in this post.

Let’s begin with the WordPress cache.

How to Clear Your WordPress Cache?

So let’s give you what you came for — instructions on how to clear your WordPress cache.

Don’t worry if you don’t use the plugins we show here as the process is more or less the same with most cache plugins.

Method 1: Clear Cache Using a WordPress Plugin

As many WordPress websites use caching plugins, let’s see how to clear the cache using them.

How to Clear Cache in WP Rocket

It’s no secret, we’re big fans of WP Rocket here at Astra, and you’ll be pleased to know it’s simple to clear the WP Rocket Cache.

In your wp-admin there’s a WP Rocket menu added to the toolbar.

Hover over WP Rocket and then click Clear Cache in the dropdown menu.

And it’s done! You’ve now learned how to clear the WP Rocket Cache!

How To Clear Cache in W3 Total Cache?

W3 Total Cache works a bit differently to the other caching plugins in our list as you can clear each different cache or clear all caches at once.

In W3 Total Cache, clearing WordPress cache is referred to as “Purge all Caches.”

There are two ways to clear the WordPress cache in W3 Total Cache.

1. Clear All Caches From the Toolbar

In the wp-admin toolbar you’ll see an item called Performance.

Hover over this and then in the resulting drop-down click on Purge all caches.

Once you click that, all the caches will be automatically cleared.

2. Clear Each Individual WordPress Cache

Select Performance > General Settings in your WordPress dashboard.

Scroll down through each individual cache option and click the Empty Cache button to clear the cache.

If the Empty Cache button isn’t clickable, then you most likely don’t have that specific caching module enabled.

And it’s as simple as that to clear W3 Total Cache!

How To Clear Cache in WP Fastest Cache?

WP Fastest Cache has two ways to clear the cache. You can also separately clear the minified CSS/JS files, perfect for if you’re updating plugins/themes or other site styles.

In the wp-admin toolbar you’ll see a new Delete Cache button.

Hover that and you’ll then have two options.

1. Clear all cache — Deletes every cache file on your website.
2. Clear cache and all minified JS/CSS files — Deletes every cache file on your website and also clears the minified files. Use this option after you’ve upgraded your theme/plugins.

And the second way of clearing your cache in WP Fastest Cache is from the plugin settings.

Select Fastest Cache > Delete cache and you’ll see two buttons.

The two options provided are the same options we talked about earlier on with one to delete the cache and one to delete both the cache and minified CSS/JS files.

How To Clear Cache in WP Super Cache?

It couldn’t be simpler to delete the cache with WP Super Cache.

As soon as you install the plugin a new button is added to the wp-admin toolbar Delete Cache.

Click on Delete Cache and instantly, the entire cache on your site is deleted.

WP Super Cache also has the option for you to delete the cache of all pages from the main plugin settings in Settings > WP Super Cache > Delete Cache.

And done! You’ve now successfully cleared your cache.

How To Clear With Cachify?

Unlike the other plugins mentioned in this article, you won’t find a shortcut to deleting caching in the wp-admin toolbar with Cachify because you cannot manually clear it.

Instead head on over to Settings > Cachify.

And you’ll notice something strange… there are no options to delete the cache.

This means that unlike other caching plugins you can’t clear the cache whenever you feel like it.

Meaning you’ll need to wait for the cache to expire automatically.

How to Clear Swift Performance Lite Cache?

In the wp-admin bar you’ll see the Swift Performance Lite menu.

Hover over that and you’ll then see the Clear Cache option in the dropdown:

Click that, and the Swift Performance Lite WordPress cache will be cleared.

How to Clear Cache in Breeze?

Breeze, like most the other plugins mentioned within this article, adds a new admin menu item to the toolbar within the WordPress admin area.

Hover over that, and you’ll then see two primary options:

1. Purge all cache — Clears all caches created by Breeze.
2. Purge modules — There are another two sub-options within this option:
   1. Purge Varnish cache — Clears the varnish cache. if you aren’t using varnish on your server, this option won’t have any effect.
   2. Purge internal cache — Clears WordPress internal cache.

Select whichever option to clear your WordPress cache, and then you’re good to go!

While Breeze is fantastic, don’t overlook other powerful caching solutions like LiteSpeed Cache (LCWP). This free plugin delivers exceptional performance optimization and can be a perfect alternative for your WordPress site. We’ve seen amazing results with LCWP, and we highly recommend giving it a test run!

Method 2: Clear Your Browser Cache

Giving your browser a good cleanse every now and again is important – especially when you’re making a lot of edits to your WordPress website.

WordPress servers tend to cache the files in your browser as well as on the servers.

The reason why these files are cached is so that they can be accessed more quickly the next time you visit a website.

For example, if a user visited your website and it took a long time to load because of large images, their browser would cache those images so that they don’t have to be loaded again the next time you visit.

This can be helpful, but it can also lead to problems if the cached files are outdated or no longer needed.

Now, let’s take a look at how to clear browser caches.

We’ll go over the process for each browser separately so follow along based on the browser you currently use.

Google Chrome

Chrome is fast, efficient, and comes with a ton of great features. But, one downside to using Chrome is that over time, your cache can start to get cluttered and bog down your browsing experience.

Luckily, it’s pretty easy to clear your cache and get things back to running smoothly.

Step 1: Open up Chrome and click on the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the screen. This will open up a menu.

Step 2: From the menu, hover over More tools and then click Clear browsing data.

Step 3: A new window will pop up. Choose how far back you want to clear your cache. We’d recommend going for All time just to be sure all cache is cleared. You can also choose which types of data you want to clear.

Step 4: For the purposes of this article, we’re just going to focus on clearing the cache. Make sure that only the Cached images and files box is checked and then click on Clear Data.

And that’s it!

Your cache should now be cleared and you can get back to browsing the internet at lightning speeds.

Safari

To clear the cache in Safari, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Safari and click on the Safari menu > Preferences.

Step 2: Click the Advanced tab at the top of the Preferences window.

Step 3: Check the box next to the Show Develop menu in the menu bar. Close the Preferences window.

Step 4: Now click the Develop menu that’s newly displayed and click Empty Caches.

And that’s it! Your Safari cache is now cleared.

Firefox

Let’s now work on clearing the cache on Firefox.

Step 1: Click on the menu button > History > Clear Recent History.

Step 2: Select how much history you want to clear.

Step 3: Click the drop-down menu next to Time range to clear and choose how much of your history Firefox will clear (the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, the current day or everything).

Step 4: Use the checkboxes to select what information you want to clear from your history.

Click OK and the window will close and the items you’ve selected will be cleared from your history.

Method 3: Clear Your WordPress Hosting Cache

Let’s now understand how you can clear your WordPress hosting cache from cPanel. We’ll go over the steps to clear cache for SiteGround, the hosting provider that we regularly use and recommend.

If you have another hosting that uses cPanel, the process should be very similar.

• After you login to your Siteground account, go to Site Tools > Speed > Caching.

• The Dynamic Cache can be cleared per website. Go to the Dynamic Cache tab and click the Flush Cache icon under Actions for the desired URL.
• Memcached can only be cleared for all sites at once. Go to the Memcached tab and click the Flush Cache icon under actions.

Method 4: Clear Server Cache via Hosting Control Panel

Sometimes, caching occurs at the server level, independent of WordPress plugins or browser settings. This server-side caching can be managed through your hosting provider’s control panel or by accessing your website files directly.​

Using Hosting Control Panel

Many hosting providers offer built-in caching solutions.

Here’s how to clear server cache using some popular hosting control panels

Bluehost: In your WordPress dashboard, click on the ‘Caching’ option in the admin toolbar and select ‘Purge All’ to clear all caches. ​

SiteGround: Access the Site Tools dashboard, navigate to ‘Speed’ > ‘Caching’, and under the ‘Dynamic Cache’ tab, click on the menu icon next to your domain and select ‘Flush Cache’. ​

Hostinger: Log in to hPanel, go to the ‘Advanced’ section, click on ‘Purge Manager’, and then click ‘Purge Cache’.

Method 5: Clear Cache for CDN Services (Cloudflare)

Cloudflare makes it easy to clear your cache for any domain. If you have multiple sites added to your Cloudflare account, choose the domain you want to purge cache for.

• Click Caching > Configuration. Alternatively, you can click the Purge Cache link under Quick Actions as shown in the screenshot below.

• Under Purge Cache, click Purge Everything.

• A warning window appears. If you agree that purging cache will slow down your website and are ready to go ahead, click Purge Everything.

And that’s it! You’re all ready to go!

If you use any other hosting that offers a cPanel, the process for clearing your hosting cache will be very similar.

Some hosting providers like Bluehost have a proprietary caching plugin that comes preinstalled. You can also clear your cache right from there without having to login to your hosting account at all.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve shown you how to clear several popular caching plugins, popular browsers, a couple of web hosts and Cloudflare CDN.

Despite the perception that caching can be challenging to clear, it’s much simpler than it may initially seem!

Have you had problems with clearing caching within WordPress plugins before? Let us know in the comments below.

WP Rocket is the most popular premium caching plugin for WordPress, and W3 Total Cache is the most popular free caching plugin for WordPress. In this article, we pitch the two head to head to find out which one you should use for your WordPress site.

WordPress Caching Plugin Comparison Table

If you’re in a hurry, here’s a quick comparison table:

What is Caching?

We’ve written extensively about what caching is and how it works before, so we won’t delve into the details here. But effectively, it’s a way of “saving your site,” so the generated pages are available quicker than having to be built each time they are requested by your visitors.

If you’re interested in the mechanics of how caching works, take a read of our ultimate guide to WordPress caching plugins.

About WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a premium-only caching plugin, launched in 2013 it quickly established itself as the go-to solution for people who are serious about their website speed.

With a beautifully designed interface, comprehensive documentation, and fantastic support, it’s clear to see how WP Rocket became so popular.

After all, WP Rocket was created out of a need. See, there were already countless WordPress caching plugins on the market when WP Rocket launched, they weren’t the first.

Yet they were different, different how? They are customer-focused, focusing on great support and ease of use. Where many other caching plugins seemed to like to play a game called “who can build the most confusing plugin,” WP Rocket took a step back, simplified the process, and helped users of all abilities build stunningly fast websites.

About W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is one of the most popular free caching plugins for WordPress. Initially launched in 2010 it quickly established itself as one of the best caching plugins for WordPress, although drama was to prevail.

As a whole W3 Total Cache has always been a marmite plugin, you either love it or hate it. With a wide array of options, it can be confusing to those less technical users.

There’s been drama in recent years with at one point the project looking like it was abandoned by its one and only developer, with support requests going unanswered and paid for work not done.

All that’s in the past now, though. W3 Total Cache was acquired by BoldGrid, who has dedicated the time and resources needed to get the plugin back on track.

Today W3 Total Cache powers over a million websites, improving their website speed for free.

Who’s the Target Audience?

WP Rocket

Targeted towards the entrepreneur, the website owner that wants to supercharge their website with minimal hassle. The person who wants everything to go perfectly and be assured that expert support is waiting should it not.

The developers who need an easy-to-use solution for clients that can be set up quickly and yet powerful enough to cache what is required and exclude what isn’t.

Overall while WP Rocket is targeted at these main groups, in our opinion, it’s suitable for all, from beginners to experts, entrepreneurs to large multinational companies, and everyone in between.

W3 Total Cache

In our opinion, W3 Total Cache is much more developer-oriented with a wide array of options and settings, it certainly isn’t as simple to use as something like WP Rocket.

It doesn’t mean you can’t use it as a small business owner, in fact, you’re more likely to! (After all, it is free), but it does take more time and patience to set up than something like WP Rocket.

So overall, while anyone can use it, we’d be inclined to recommend WP Rocket for less technically inclined users as it packs all the power and yet not as much complexity.

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Feature Showdown

In this section, we take a look at the features that make an excellent caching plugin and compare the offerings in both WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache, declaring a winner in each section.

Remember this is our opinion only!

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Caching Methods

As we’ve covered in our other caching articles that are a range of caching methods available, including:

• Browser Caching
• Page Caching
• Database Caching

And more!

WP Rocket Caching Methods

As you’d expect from one of the best caching plugins for WordPress, WP Rocket comes with two of the most essential caching options, page caching and browser caching.

One thing WP Rocket doesn’t include is Database caching, this is both a positive and a negative, we know an oxymoron right?

Well, let’s break it down. Implemented correctly database caching undoubtedly speeds up your website. However, it’s not something that is easy to set up correctly, and because of this, it often requires a developer specializing in databases to get it done.

So while it’s a negative, the option isn’t included; in all likelihood, it isn’t for the average person to implement, and as such, it can be a negative if it was included as it introduces a level of complexity to set it up.

W3 Total Cache Caching Methods

W3 Total cache also offers a couple of different caching methods.

And in our recent tests where we compared 15 WordPress caching plugins, it performed the best out of them all and still made our site faster than any other caching plugin, including WP Rocket! ?

What other caching methods does W3 Total Cache offer? It offers both page caching and database caching, ah yes, the fabled database caching method mentioned earlier.

While it does introduce a layer of complexity to the setup, you don’t have to use it, and because of this, it’s not a real negative and is neither a particular positive (as many won’t make use of it).

Winner? It’s a draw, while both options offer identical, but not completely the same, features they make up for in performance.

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Database Optimization

Optimizing your WordPress database is crucial to keeping a fast-running site, a bloated database not only slows down the front-end of your website but also the admin side, often making it painfully slow to update your website.

While database optimization isn’t a feature synonymous with WordPress caching plugins, it’s a feature that some do offer.

WP Rocket includes a range of database optimization options including:

• Revisions.
• Auto Drafts.
• Trashed Posts.
• Spam Comments.
• Trashed Comments.
• Expired Transients.
• All Transients.
• Optimize Tables.
• Schedule Automatic Cleanup.

These options allow you to quickly and easily clean up your database in just a click! Saving you time, and as you know here at Astra, we’re a big fan of tools that make your website fast and save you time. After all, that’s why we built Astra.

There are no database optimization options in W3 Total Cache, meaning that you’d need to use a separate plugin to optimize your WordPress database.

Winner: WP Rocket!

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Minification and Concatenation

Minification is where any unnecessary space and code are removed from your plugin and theme files. It’s a bit technical, so let’s take a look at a quick example:

<?php
/**
* This is an example of a comment in PHP code. 
* Developers use this to document why they are doing something within the code
* and what the code is.
*
*/
echo 'Hello World';
?>

Now there’s a lot of spacing here, right? Minification takes the above code and does this:

<?php echo 'Hello World'; ?>

In short, it removes any comments within the code and eliminates any spacing that isn’t actually required. See spacing is only used for readability, it isn’t needed to run the code.

Concatenation is combining multiple files of one type into one file, minimizing requests/the number of files needing to be loaded.

For example, your theme at a minimum will have a style.css file, but it may also have header.css, footer.css, and other CSS files.

Concatenation will combine those four CSS files into just a single CSS file, taking the number of requests from 4 to 1.

If you’d like to learn more about minification and concatenation, check out our ultimate guide to WordPress caching.

Out of the box WP Rocket includes both minification and concatenation for your WordPress site.

There are options for minifying HTML, CSS, and JS (Javascript), in addition to being able to concatenate (combine) CSS and JS files.

WP Rocket makes it easy to set these options with a few clicks. Keep in mind, though, as we’ve mentioned in our other WordPress caching articles that after enabling minification and combining files, you may run into conflicts with your site.

You should always test changes after performing them, take a backup before implementing any changes, and WP Rocket makes it simple to exclude files from being minified or combined.

W3 Total Cache also offers both minification and concatenation of files.

And just like WP Rocket, it’s easy to use and even includes extra functionality such as HTTP/2 push.

While moving render-blocking code to the body of the web page to improve the page speed score is reserved for the Pro version of W3 Total Cache, there’s still an extraordinary amount of functionality for a free plugin.

Winner? It’s a close call, both WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache both offer a similar feature set for minification and combining files, however as they are so closely matched and W3 Total Cache is free this round we’re giving to W3 Total Cache!

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: CDN Compatibility

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a series of servers that are located all around the world. Your assets are saved to these servers, and then the CDN serves your website’s assets from the server closest to your end-user.

By serving assets from a server closer to your end-user, you drastically reduce network latency.

While this is an overall technical concept, you can learn more about CDNs both in our WordPress speed up course and in our WordPress Caching guide, both of which give a more in-depth insight into how this works with real-world examples.

W3 Total Cache has a comprehensive set of features for CDN compatibility.

Not only does it work with CDNs, but it actively lets you set what is hosted at the CDN including:

• Attachments.
• WordPress Core files.
• Theme files.
• Minified CSS and JS files.
• Custom Files — you can set a custom list of files to also upload to your CDN including images, and any other files you want.

The CDN functionality of W3 Total Cache is both fully featured and very easy to use. While at first you may be overwhelmed with the options available, it’s simple to set up and works perfectly.

WP Rocket, on the other hand, supports all CDN providers but is actually more complex to set up and lacking in features when compared directly to W3 Total Cache.

As you can see from the screenshot above, it’s a much simpler interface as such but doesn’t offer the excellent tuned control or the easy setup of W3 Total Cache’s CDN options.

You can set which CDN CNAME should be used for which file type and also exclude files from the CDN, but this is the extent of the options provided by WP Rocket, and as such, it doesn’t always give everything you need.

Winner? W3 Total Cache due to the feature set provided, and the ease of use.

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Multilingual Compatibility

Both WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache support multilingual WordPress plugins.

For W3 Total Cache, you’ll need the premium plugin version, and of course, WP Rocket is premium only.

W3 Total Cache only supports the popular WPML plugin, whereas WP Rocket supports WPML, Qtranslate, and Polylang.

Overall there’s not much difference between the two plugins when it comes to this apart from which plugin you already use to translate.

Winner? WP Rocket, because it’s compatible with more services, and there isn’t anything unique about the W3 Total Cache Multilingual compatibility that makes up for the lack of services/integrations.

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Ease of Use

WP Rocket is incredibly easy to use out of the box, caching is enabled, and you don’t even need to do anything else if you don’t want (although you won’t achieve the best speed that way).

Options are kept to a minimum, and yet the plugin is still powerful and includes multiple caching types, database optimization, multilingual support, and much more.

The settings for each option are kept straightforward overall, except for the CDN settings, as we’ve covered above. This allows almost anyone to set up the plugin in a matter of minutes.

Remember, though, just because a caching plugin is easy to set up, it doesn’t mean that it won’t come without problems, not in the form of bugs. Rather websites are unique, and there can be issues when you enable options like minification and the combination of files.

So while there may be trial and error in setting up a caching plugin, it doesn’t; make that caching plugin “bad” or mean it’s not working.

W3 Total Cache isn’t as easy to use as WP Rocket, the interface isn’t as straightforward, and there’s a myriad of options, settings, buttons and interface elements that may not be that clear to all.

However, just like WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache is an incredibly powerful caching plugin that offers multiple caching types, comprehensive CDN support, multilingual support, and more!

Due to the number of options for each setting for each option, it’ll take you longer to set up than WP Rocket, although we’re not talking hours, just if you like to go through each one and learn about what it does, then it’ll definitely take you longer.

Winner? WP Rocket, the clear and easy to use interface, straightforward settings, and powerful functionality make it a winner. While W3 Total Cache is a worthy adversary in this round, the outdated interface isn’t a match for that of WP Rocket.

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Support and Documentation

It’s not secret WP Rocket pride themselves on their top-notch support, they offer great support from their in-house team and are intimately familiar with all nature of caching related issues and how to get the best out of the plugin for your site.

Combine the expert in house support expertise with passionate, knowledgeable staff, and you have the recipe for a great support experience.

Besides their expert support team, they also have an extensive Knowledge Base.

Their extensive range of documentation is also available directly from within the plugin, meaning you never have to leave your WordPress admin dashboard, pretty nifty, right?

W3 Total Cache, on the other hand, is distinctly lacking when it comes to any form of knowledge base and has a support system that leaves a lot to be desired.

So just what are the problems when it comes to W3 Total Cache and support?

For a start, there isn’t a knowledge base, there’s no documentation to speak off, and this makes an already difficult to use plugin thanks to its confusing user interface even more challenging to use for the beginner user.

Now when it comes to support, this is where things aren’t good at all. Everyone needs to make money, and we’re no exception here at Astra, but support is needed by people of various financial means, and unfortunately, W3 Total Caches’ support is expensive.

In the plugin admin settings there’s a support tab menu item, clicking that shows you the support form like this:

You can ask a billing question, a sales question, submit a bug report and finally suggest a new feature for free, but everything else is a paid option.

The two most troubling of which are:

• Hosting Environment Troubleshooting.
• Investigate Compatibility Issue.

These options cost $300 and $350, respectively, while both can be time-consuming this is the type of support most plugin authors provide either for free or with their premium plugins often starting from $30+.

To charge $350 for a compatibility issues means if you have one and can’t solve it yourself, we’d recommend using something else.

Now don’t get us wrong, we think W3 Total Cache is a great caching plugin. Available for free and with a comprehensive feature set, however, the lack of support options, expensive support and minimal/no documentation means that it may not be for everyone.

Winner? WP Rocket. WP Rocket is light years ahead in the support and documentation game when compared to W3 Total Cache, there really is no competition here.

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Pricing

WP Rocket is available from just $49, which is for 1 website. $99 for 3 websites and $249 for unlimited websites.

All purchases give you expert support and one of the best caching plugins available for WordPress.

All WP Rocket licenses can be renewed annually with a 30% discount off the first year price.

W3 Total Cache is $99/year and renews annually, this is a per website price, and there are no discounts for renewal.

Another downside of the W3 Total Cache pricing is their somewhat confusing support model, which we outlined above, combined with the fact that customers can’t cancel their own license! Instead, you have to email the W3 Total Cache team to cancel your license.

Winner? WP Rocket, we’re not fans of requiring a customer to email to cancel their license in W3 Total Cache. Combine this with the fact that WP Rocket offers a discount on renewals, and this is one of the easiest decisions all day.

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Speed

When it comes down to it, the thing that everyone uses a caching plugin for is improving their website speed.

We did a fresh install of WordPress. Installed the blazingly fast Astra theme, and set up a demo website using Astra Starter sites.

We then installed the caching plugin, run multiple speed tests, and took the median value. After this, we wiped the website and re-installed everything in precisely the same way for testing the second plugin.

The test server itself is running PHP 7.3, and we’re using the latest version of WordPress and the respective plugins.

We set up a basic configuration with each plugin and spent no more than 15 minutes, setting each plugin up.

Before we installed the caching plugins, our demo website loaded in 3.1 seconds, had a page size of 916KB, and 69 requests.

Here are our speed results for WP Rocket:

And here are our speed results for W3 Total Cache:

As you can see, WP Rocket produces fewer requests and smaller page size, but W3 Total Cache makes our website significantly quicker than WP Rocket does.

Winner? W3 Total Cache the numbers speak for themselves.

WP Rocket vs. W3 Total Cache: Overall Winner

Both plugins are worthy of your website, but ultimately any contest can only have one winner.

While the results of W3 Total Cache in our tests were better than those of WP Rocket, it’s difficult to overlook the lack of documentation, expensive support, an outdated user interface.

And with more tinkering of the settings and other speed-up methods, we’re confident WP Rocket would provide similar results.

Given the high price and the downsides we’ve mentioned, our winner is… WP Rocket!

WP Rocket is one of the best caching plugins for WordPress there is, although it’s premium only, if you ask just one support ticket it’ll still be far cheaper than the “free” W3 Total Cache if you need support.

This isn’t to say W3 Total Cache isn’t a great plugin, it certainly is, but ultimately the extensive documentation and world-class support by the WP Rocket team won it for them.

Have you used these two caching plugins before? Perhaps you have a preferred caching plugin that isn’t mentioned? Let us know in the comments below.

And while we have you here, don’t forget to check out our WordPress speed-up course and the ultimate guide to WordPress caching.

Finding the fastest managed WordPress hosting company can be difficult. Out of the thousands, how would you know which one to use?

Numerous web hosts offer WordPress-optimized hosting packages. In a nutshell, a managed WordPress web host will manage the security, speed, core updates, daily backups, scalability, and uptime of your website.

When shopping for a web host, don’t fall into the trap of “the cheapest you can find.” Sometimes, you only do get what you pay for, and what would you expect for a $2 a month plan?

Instead, you should look for the value in a company’s services — things like customer service, performance, uptime, and extra features need to be considered as well.

Choosing the best web hosting service is one of the most crucial step for new bloggers. You don’t want to deal with slow loading and downtime, do you?

This article is going to go over what a web host is, the pros and cons of managed WordPress hosting, and we will compare the 13 fastest managed WordPress hosting companies out there.

What Is Managed WordPress Hosting?

Do you have an idea for a blog? What about a dropshipping business?

A cheap and easy way to get your WordPress started is with managed WordPress hosting. They will manage the servers, optimize performance and make it easy for you to get your creation online.

According to a survey published by Netcraft, they estimate over 1.3 billion active websites, and WordPress is powering 35% of the internet. That means WordPress powers a staggering 455,000,00 dynamic websites.

WordPress has been around since 2003, and according to W3techs, WordPress owns 61.8% of the CMS market share.

The best part about managed WordPress hosting is the support. Your support will be actual WordPress experts with a lot of experience — you won’t have someone trying to read a manual to answer your question.

Top 13 Best Managed WordPress Hosting Companies

There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a managed WordPress web host, we’ve hand-picked 13 of the fastest managed WordPress web hosts and will go over the plans available, features offered, and a review of their customer support.

1. Hostinger

Hostinger offers rock-solid performance for WordPress websites. Boasting sophisticated platforms, Hostinger is a cheap web hosting provider that delivers superb web hosting services. Hostinger gives you everything you need to launch a website for the lowest price possible.

Hostinger specialises in low-cost plans packed with features, few restrictions, and managed WordPress-ready hosting and best for both WordPress developers and beginners. It offers fast and knowledgeable customer support.

Hostinger places very few limits on what you can do with your hosting environment, and it does not display ads on the WordPress sites that it is hosting. And this company confidently offered public information on the performance of its servers including uptime data.

For professionals or beginners, this WordPress Hosting is intuitive and conveniently simple to use. It offers LiteSpeed’s cache-engine, Cloudflare’s protection and SSL certificate for your WordPress site. Hostinger also automatically backs up your site real-time for any core or security updates available for WordPress, or any of its plugins.

Features

• Custom developed control panel (hPanel)
• Speedy NVMe storage
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Website builder
• 1-Click WordPress installations
• Guaranteed 99.9% uptime
• Superior speed performance
• The latest tech and custom-built technology

Pros:

• Hostinger is really FAST
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Faster loading with the cache manager
• AI tools for WordPress
• Incredible benefits that increase speed
• Excellent custom dashboard
• Responsive support (they’re fun too!)
• Free domain
• Unlimited features
• Great introductory price
• Option to use Hostinger website builder
• Affordable shared hosting plans
• Good performance results for users who are based in the US and the UK.
• Publicly-displayed server status

Cons:

• Lower performance results for users outside of the US and UK

Plans Available

If you’re strapped for cash, this is the cheapest option.

Customer Support

Hostinger provides customer service through its 24/7 support ticket system and via email. They have a solid knowledge base full of helpful information.

Pricing

2. Cloudways

Cloudways is a fast and reliable hosting provider and is trusted by 72,000+ businesses across the world. It delivers on your demand for high performance and reliability for a dependable online presence.

The hosting offers a staging environment, automatic backups, vertical scaling, and includes free SSL.

Cloudways is fully optimized with a built-in advanced cache, ensuring peak website performance. This results in faster websites that deliver the performance visitors expect.

Cloudways is built for performance, giving you a choice of 5 cloud hosting networks on which you can host multiple websites.

Astra has partnered with Cloudways to help you build a professional WordPress website in minutes. The combination helps you create a website that reflects your brand, engages your audience and grows your business.

Sign up for a Cloudways hosting plan and you’ll get the Astra Pro license for free. Yes, free!

Astra installs automatically alongside WordPress, enabling you to get building fast. Building a website using Astra and Cloudways is as simple as 1-2-3 with Starter Templates.

The platform is simple to use and gives you the power to create and launch a website that reflects your business.

Features 

• Fast WordPress hosting
• Interactive and user friendly interface for application and server management
• Exceptional server and application performance
• Maximum uptime guarantee up to 99.9%
• Dependable security offering customers platform-level firewalls to keep data secure and safe 
• Professional 24/7/365 support
• Automatic server backups
• Free SSL certificates
• Powerful migration tools

Pros:

• Automatic Astra Pro installation
• Easy setup process
• User dashboard is amazing
• Professional live chat support
• Automatic backups with one-click restore
• Server and application management functionality
• Option to choose from multiple server locations
• Intuitive control panel
• Unlimited applications access
• Free website migration
• Optimized with advanced caches
• Pay-as-you-go hosting plans available

Cons:

• No email hosting
• Less control over features such as turning off PHP
• CDN isn’t free but is reasonably priced

Plans available

There are a number of web hosting packages to select from depending on what options you choose.

Standard:

Cloudways offers standard support providing 24/7/365 access to live chat guidance. Each request is routed to a trained support team member who can help you with any issue you may come across. 

Pricing

Each cloud hosting option has different price points depending on what you select. The DigitalOcean plan pricing plan is outlined below as an example.

3. DreamHost

DreamHost is a popular hosting company that offers a host of web hosting solutions, including managed WordPress hosting. It is also officially recommended by WordPress.org. 

Whether you are a beginner or established business, DreamHost offers everything you need to build and scale your online venture.

From the drag and drop WP Website Builder to several plugins and readymade page templates, DreamHost comes bundled with a host of features for you to build a WordPress website.

All the managed WordPress hosting plans come with unmetered bandwidth, one-click staging, pre-installed SSL certificates, free WordPress migrations, the WP Website Builder, and 24/7 customer support via a ticketing system.

Features

DreamHost offers generous features for its managed WordPress hosting, such as:

• High-performance cloud servers
• SSD storage
• WordPress pre-installed
• Free WordPress site migration
• Daily and on-demand backups
• One-click staging
• Pre-installed SSL certificate
• Unlimited CDN
• Free domains on annual plans
• Free domain privacy
• 24/7 support via ticket

Pros:

• Monthly hosting plans
• Host of features in all the plans
• Unmetered bandwidth and SSD storage
• Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate is pre-installed
• Free WordPress site migration
• Automatic daily backups plus additional on-demand backups whenever you want
• Built-in caching resulting in faster sites
• All plans come with WP Website Builder that has over 200 professionally designed templates and a drag and drop builder to help you build websites faster
• Free domain along with the annual plans
• Recommended by WordPress.org

Cons:

• Limited data centers
• While support is great, the live chat support is limited

Plans Available

DreamHost offers three kinds of managed WordPress hosting plans that offer several features.

Customer Support

DreamHost offers 24/7 support across all their hosting plans via a ticket system. If you are a registered user, you can make use of the live chat support as well.

Pricing

DreamHost offers several hosting plans, each with a different pricing structure. Here’s what the managed WordPress hosting plan looks like.

4. ScalaHosting

ScalaHosting has been in the industry for well over a decade. Over the years, it has built a reputation for fast, reliable services, innovative solutions, and top-quality customer support.

The company’s extensive portfolio of services includes anything from cheap shared hosting all the way up to custom virtual node clusters for mission-critical apps and high-availability websites.

ScalaHosting has a complete set of WordPress-optimized plans. The cheaper options are based on a shared infrastructure and are perfect for websites with a limited budget and outreach. If you’re serious about your project, you’ll probably be more interested in a managed VPS solution.

The virtualization technology and the guaranteed resources of VPS provide better security and more stable performance. At the same time, the pretty much infinite scalability gives you the peace of mind that no matter how much your site grows, your virtual server can adapt to your needs.

All WordPress hosting plans are managed, so they come pre-configured and ready to host your site. You just need to install WordPress and start working on it.

If you have a shared account, you’ll do it through cPanel. If you’re on a VPS plan, you can use SPanel – a proprietary management platform built in-house by ScalaHosting. 

In both cases, you get an automatic installer that sets up WordPress for you, as well as all the features you need to manage email accounts, files, databases, DNS settings and more.

Features

ScalaHosting’s WordPress-optimized plans come with quite a few features, including:

• An automatic installer that can set up WordPress (and a few plugins) in seconds
• Special WordPress management platform that lets you delete websites and change admin passwords with a couple of clicks
• A tool that can clone your WordPress installation and create a staging environment
• Unique security lock feature on the SPanel-powered servers that lets you lock your site’s files and prevent unauthorized access
• Free migration of any existing websites from other hosts
• Free domain and SSL certification from Let’s Encrypt
• Three data centers – two in the US and one in Europe. The company can also deploy a VPS on infrastructure owned and run by AWS
• Daily offsite backups
• Easy Cloudflare integration
• Multiple web server options on SPanel-powered plans
• A state-of-the-art security system providing real-time malware scans and DDoS protection

Pros

• New customers get special discounts and plenty of freebies
• Money-back guarantee
• 99.9% uptime guarantee. Refunds if the company can’t keep its promise
• The SPanel management platform free with ScalaHosting’s VPS solutions
• A fully managed environment
• Customizable virtual server configuration
• SSH access, WP-CLI, and GIT support standard on all plans

Cons

• WordPress doesn’t come pre-installed on the WordPress hosting plans
• Shared packages only come with cPanel.

Plans Available

ScalaHosting’s range of WordPress hosting plans consists of three shared packages and one entry-level cloud VPS solution. The virtual server is infinitely scalable and can be adapted to host large projects with lots of visitors.

Customer Support

ScalaHosting takes pride in the quality of its customer support. Its technical experts are available 24/7 over tickets and live chat with response times of just 30 seconds for chats and 15 minutes for tickets. 

Pricing

5. SiteGround

SiteGround is one of the most renowned names in web hosting. Providing everything from shared hosting, cloud hosting, and even managed WordPress hosting, this company has a package for everyone.

SiteGround strives for performance as well as creating a stable server environment and offers all of the features you need in a managed WordPress web host.

The company recently upgraded their systems to offer significant speed improvements for all hosting plans. 

Those upgrades include a new dynamic caching system that improves page loading speeds by between 50-100%, a new Brotli compression system that takes over from Gzip and a new SQL infrastructure for superfast query processing.

Users of the GrowBig and higher plans also get Ultrafast PHP for even more speed, up to 30% boost!

All these speed improvements demonstrate SiteGround’s dedication to delivering superb performance to all their customers.

Features

SiteGround offers many features, which include:

• A selection of web hosting packages ranging from cheap to expensive — depending on the features you need
• Regular system upgrades including the new dynamic cache, SQL system and Brotli compression
• Ultrafast PHP for GrowBig and higher plans
• Friendly and effective 24/7 support
• Fully managed servers
• Create a WordPress starter site in minutes
• Easy migration and professional transfer service on the GrowBig and GoGeek plans
• Hardware located in the best data center facilities
• Unique WordPress Auto installer for more straightforward setup
• Auto update WordPress Core files and all of your plugins
• WordPress SuperCacher for improving site performance
• WordPress staging to quickly test out new features before live launch
• Pre-installed WP-CLI comes to take the command line route to updates and multisite management

Pros:

• Officially recommended by WordPress.org
• Autoinstall, auto-update, caching, and staging features at a very low price
• Encrypt SSL for all plans
• Also comes with Git, free PCI compliance (for e-commerce), WP-CLI pre-installed, and offers WordPress migration for no added cost
• Proactive security team when it comes to security, they have an account isolation option, and they regularly patch security exploits, instead of just sitting back and waiting for a security release to come out
• Offers Staging, SSD drives and includes CDN
• Allows multiple websites on a single account, with 24/7 support
• And free backup and restore features

Cons:

• SiteGround only supports Cloudflare CDN by default. If you want to use MaxCDN, a third-party plugin such as W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket plugin are needed
• Lack of cPanel may require learning a new back end system for some users

Plans Available

There are three plans available, all reasonably priced and full of features.

Customer Support

SiteGround is known for its superior customer support available 24/7. There are three ways to get support — support tickets, live chat, and phone support.

Pricing

6. Kinsta

Kinsta is a performance-focused cloud hosting provider. It is built with an infrastructure designed for speed that allows you to get the most out of what you pay. 

Offering powerful tools with a user-friendly environment, Kinsta makes creating WordPress websites and deploying applications and databases easy. The company is so serious about their security that it offers a hack fix guarantee.

Kinsta has all the features needed from a managed WordPress host such as staging sites, automatic backups, server-level caching, and more. 

It is built on the Google Cloud Platform, allowing you to access Google infrastructures and 35+ different data centers available on every continent (except Antarctica – for now).

Kinsta is a smaller player compared to the giant shared hosting companies. Its high-quality hosting platform makes it an equal to the rest of the other WordPress hosts in this list.

Kinsta is more of a premium solution with a highly optimized platform. It’s ready to take on a large number of visitors, performs automatic scaling, supports SSH, WP-CLI, Git, integrating a CDN, and many more features.

Features

Kinsta offers many features, which include:

• Next-gen infrastructure and technology for performance
• Google-powered cloud platform
• A variety of hosting packages that range from cheap to expensive
• Secured servers designed with speed and performance in mind
• Regular updates and daily backups
• Edge caching for fast load times
• Free premium migrations
• Excellent documentation and customer support
• Free wildcard SSL and CDN
• Custom hosting user-friendly dashboard.
• One-click staging and automatic backups.
• Built-in caching options
• Powered by the Google Cloud Platform and includes the latest technologies like NGINX, PHP 8+, LXD containers, MariaDB, HTTP/3, and more.
• Comes with Cloudflare CDN and premium DNS from Amazon Route 53 at no extra cost.
• 24/7/365 live chat support.
• Adds WordPress login hardening, uptime monitoring, and other essential security features.
• Unlimited basic free migrations from any host.

Pros:

• Incredible performance.
• The custom dashboard also makes it easy to manage your site.
• Fast 24/7 support and help services with chat widget.
• Great Google Cloud Platform support, including the premium tier network.
• 720 daily uptime checks per site.
• Automatically optimizes the MySQL database for your WordPress website every week.
• Edge-caching.
• Free CDN for every plan with 275+ PoPs.
• Quick SSD storage.
• Self-healing PHP.
• Automatic scaling.
• Supports SSH, WP-CPI, Let’s Encrypt and Git.
• Staging and cloning environment.
• Cloudflare integration.
• Built-in Application Performance Monitoring tool
• Offers hosting for web applications and databases too

Cons:

• Not as affordable as other low-cost hosting like SiteGround, especially for multiple sites.
• No phone support.
• The cheapest plans have low monthly visit maximums.

Plans Available

There are plenty of packages available at Kinsta:

• Starter – $35 per month or $350 annually
• Pro – $70 per month or $700 annually
• Business 1 – $115 per month or $1,150 annually
• Business 2 – $225 per month or $2,250 annually
• Business 3 – $340 per month or $3,400 annually
• Business 4 – $450 per month or $4,500 annually
• Enterprise 1– $675 per month or $6,750 annually
• Enterprise 2 – $1000 per month or $10,000 annually
• Enterprise 3 – $1,350 per month or $13,500 annually
• Enterprise 4 – $1,650 per month or $16,500 annually

Customer Support

Kinsta offers an online messaging system that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

They do not offer phone support, but their customer service shines with their ticket system and chat channels. They also offer support in French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish during select hours.

Pricing

7. Nexcess

Another popular, managed WordPress web host is Nexcess a Liquid Web Company. Dedicated to bringing you the best service, their 250+ experienced administrators, technicians, and engineers are there to help. They’re famous for their Heroic Support, with swift response times and expert support staff.

They offer multiple web hosting packages that include managed WordPress hosting, VPS, cloud, and dedicated hosting.

Nexcess caters to users with multiple websites such as corporate agencies and online professionals. It’s a privately held company that owns three (3) data centers where they host their customers’ websites. This web host is in full control of its entire network.

Nexcess stopped offering shared hosting and focused on delivering high-end hosting for site and store owners with more complex needs. This is the type of company that is investing all its resources, time and energy in delivering a premium service to those with more complex hosting requirements and demanding expectations.

Features

Nexcess offers many features, which include:

• Incredibly fast managed WordPress hosting
• High-performance servers with SSL included
• Packages available to scale and grow your business — great for businesses
• Automatic WordPress updates, backups and single-click backup restoration
• Free migration
• Beaver Builder Lite
• 24/7/365 US-based Heroic Support from highly trained staff available via live chat, phone, and support tickets.
• 100% Uptime Guarantee. Unlike most other hosting companies, Nexcess promises 100% uptime.
• Offers a 30 minute hardware replacement guarantee for dedicated server customers.

Pros:

• Plans that you can use for 10 to 50 sites. For more sites, you will also be given a custom price.
• Daily, automated website backups.
• Staging areas to test your sites.
• Free SSL.
• Development tools including Git and SSH.
• 24/7 professional customer support team that contacts you via chat, email, and phone.
• A relatively reasonable monthly price to host 10 websites.
• Speedy Hosting – with hosting plans that are optimized for quick page loads.
• No Plugin Limits – Nexcess doesn’t ban any plugins.
• Guaranteed 100% Uptime.
• Heroic Support

Cons:

• Nexcess has some history with downtime issues.
• No Shared Hosting.
• No Money-Back Guarantee.
• Higher Costs – Nexcess hosting plans are more expensive, but you get what you pay for in quality of service and support.

Plans Available

With seven different tiers and the ability to pay monthly or annually, there are plenty of choices:

• Spark – $19 per month or $190 annually
• Maker – $79 per month or $790 annually
• Designer – $109 per month or $1,090 annually
• Builder – $149 per month or $1,490 annually
• Producer – $299 per month or $2,990 annually
• Executive – $549 per month or $5,490 annually
• Enterprise – $999 per month or $9,990 annually

Customer Support

Nexcess employs highly-trained professionals to be available 24/7/365 to answer any questions you have. Support is available via phone, support tickets, and online chat. Phone calls have a 59-second initial response guarantee, live chat has a 59-second initial response guarantee, and the help desk support offers a 59-minute initial response guarantee.

Pricing

8. WPMU DEV

WPMU DEV’s business model is geared towards helping WordPress developers grow their business quickly and more profitably.

They offer ultrafast, fully managed, premium white label WordPress hosting which can be purchased separately or bundled with their membership plans. All backed by a team of hosting and WordPress experts, with 24/7 live chat support for anything hosting or WordPress-related. 

WPMU DEV users also have access to The HUB, a control center that lets you manage unlimited WordPress sites from a single location.

Additionally, the hosting is completely white labeled for reselling, including a client Hub, support for Stripe payments, custom client invoicing tools with “0” fees for members, domain reselling, templates, and more.

Features:

• Servers configured for performance that deliver fully optimized super-fast hosting
• One-click staging, self-healing architecture
• Supports SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, WP-CLI, Git, Composer, & NPM, NewRelic and Blackfire and Reset WP
• Own VPS, unique IP address, free SSL (free Wildcard SSL automatically included for Multisite subdomains)
• 10 data center locations and 45 point CDN
• Regular updates and automated daily backups
• Includes the latest technologies like NGINX, PHP 8.1, and HTTP/2
• Free valet migration and DIY migration tools
• 24/7 live chat with expert customer support, comprehensive documentation, forums, WordPress tutorials
• Fully integrated premium plugins for improved security, performance, SEO, and marketing
• The Hub site management tool

Pros:

• Speed/performance ( static site cache + object cache + SMUSH & Hummingbird CDN)
• Dedicated server resources and various server locations
• 24/7 expert live chat support
• Hosting buyout option
• Unlimited free migrations
• Time-saving templates and preset configs for setting up new sites quickly
• Automatic nightly backups
• One-click staging
• File manager
• DNS manager
• Free SSL certificates
• Free email addresses
• Multisite support
• Bundled premium plugins
• The Hub site management tool
• Complete white label reseller hosting with invoices, subscriptions and client billing

Cons:

• 24/7 support does not include phone support
• Only 1 website allowed per plan

Plans Available:

WPMU DEV offers 9 managed WordPress hosting plans starting from $12 per month (Bronze) to enterprise-level hosting ranging from $250 per month (Uranium) to $1,500 per month (Iridium).

Customer Support:

WPMU DEV offers live chat support for all hosting and WordPress-related questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They do not offer phone support, but their customer service is super-responsive and active via support tickets, chat channels, and forums.

Pricing:

9. Flywheel

If you’re looking for fast speeds, an excellent performance record, and outstanding support, Flywheel may be an excellent choice for you. Flywheel offers some tremendous free demo sites that allow you to have a website built in a few clicks, so you’re up and running in no time.

Flywheel is an excellent choice for non-developers, designers, small business owners, freelancers, bloggers, and all non-technical people in general, who want to launch a WordPress site with no interruptions.

The network infrastructure of Flywheel is optimized for speed, security, and scaling. Packages are feature-rich, you get free migrations and automated backups.

They offer an easy to use platform with a set of sleek workflow tools that are great for developers and agencies. The platform is designed to quickly and easily build, launch, and manage all of your WordPress sites.

The Flywheel support team is staffed mostly with designers with WordPress expertise. The pricing is very reasonable, and it scales up according to your needs.

Features

• Fast website speeds
• Free website migrations
• Automated backups
• Free demo sites
• Optimized for the WordPress platform
• Create common themes and plugins as “starter sets” for future projects
• Free SSL certificate
• Nightly backups
• Around the clock security
• More intuitive SFTP

Pros:

• Faster page load, more scalability, and freedom to use whatever plugins you want.
• Flywheel’s highly-qualified WordPress expert staff will take care of your every need and concern.
• Ultra beginner-friendly interface and easy to use.
• Data centers around the world.
• Built-in caching and automatic backups.
• 24/7 customer support via live chat.
• Free SSL for all plans.
• No overage charges policy.
• Cheap pricing for beginners in using managed hosting.

Cons:

• Lacks support from popular plugins like WPEngines.
• More expensive than shared hosting.
• You need to learn a new dashboard or interface other than those you already use in your business website.
• Additional server features can get expensive.
• Phone support is no longer provided.

Plans Available

Plans start at $13 to $242 per month paid annually or $15 to $290 paid monthly, so you have plenty of options.

Customer Support

Customer support for Flywheel can be reached 24/7/365 through phone, support tickets, live chat, or email. You can even send them a tweet for help.

Flywheel offers plenty of resources for learning everything from building a business to tips for increasing the speed of your WordPress site.

Pricing

10. WP Engine

WP Engine is one of the most popular managed WordPress web hosts. They boast a robust in-house performance optimization, managed updates, and much more. Whether you’re looking for managed, dedicated, or cloud WordPress hosting services, WP Engine has you covered.

WP Engine price is a bit higher compared to other Managed Hosting providers as it emphasizes providing WordPress experts team support, fast loading times, and more secure servers.

WP Engine’s platform is designed around four pillars — agility, intelligence, performance, and integrations. It offers managed solutions that cater to both beginner-friendly and developer-friendly WordPress hosting. WP Engine’s in-house caching technology provides more speed and scalability options to make building a simple personal blog or a complex website more easily.

WP Engine includes a one-click backup and restores process with all hosting plans. WPEngine will scan and monitor for hacking attempts, and fix your hacked website for free.

Features

WP Engine offers many features, which include:

• Free SSL certificate and content delivery network ready.
• Highly redundant system and robust technology structure
• Free automated migration to WP Engine
• Daily backups, threat detection, and firewall protection
• Award-winning customer service
• Flexible hosting plans
• Free WordPress themes and Genesis framework plugin
• Staging area – It creates a duplicate copy of your live site, so you can test new themes and plugins before applying changes to your live site.
• One-Click Restore Point – In case anything goes wrong with your site, theme, or plugins, you can use the one-click restore point to bring back your site to how they were when everything was working.
• No cache plugins needed – WP Engine’s EverCache technology delivers and scales your WordPress at speed required by Google.
• Free hacking scanning and fixing.

Pros:

• Easily add a CDN to your site for all plans with just one click, fantastic support for your WordPress site, extremely fast, and secure servers.
• It uses EverCache to regularly scan your WordPress site for any hacking attempts and keeps your site safe and secure. No need for external caching plugins to secure your WordPress site.
• Great scalability, free automated migration, 24/7 chat support and phone support.
• Allows you to access the Genesis Framework and over 35 StudioPress WordPress themes for free.
• Included SSL certificates.

Cons:

• More expensive compared to other managed WordPress hosting service provides.
• It’s not flexible enough for your plugin department.
• High excess costs of up to $1 per every 1000 visits.
• High costs for add-ons like WordPress Multisite, geotargeting, and additional sites.

Plans Available

Plans start at $25 to $241 per month paid annually or $30 to $290 paid monthly, with plenty of packages to choose from.

Customer Support

Knowledgeable customer support is available 24/7/365. A well-known name in the industry, WP Engine is a three-time Stevie Award Winner for best customer service. You can also check out their support center for a vast amount of information ranging from setting up a website to account management.

Pricing

11. GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks developed by experienced professionals, GreenGeeks is a unique and eco-friendly web hosting service with more than ten years in the business.   

Every data center server needs to be functioning 24/7 in secured and climate-controlled facilities. That requirement alone consumes a lot of energy. This green, stable, and competitive company brings eco-friendly web hosting to the next level. GreenGeeks committed to replacing thrice the energy they consume by purchasing wind energy credits back to the grid. What a heroic effort of lowering their carbon footprint to save planet Earth, right? But some call it a clever marketing strategy. No wonder GreenGeeks is a recipient of plenty of environmental awards. 

Features  

GreenGeeks offers many features, which include:

• Unlimited SSD web space
• Unlimited domains on one account
• Free domain registration
• Free site builder
• Free Let’s Encrypt Wildcard SSL Certificate
• Free unlimited email accounts
• Free CDN integration
• Free nightly backups

Pros:  

• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Commit 99.9% uptime
• Free domain name for life
• Unlimited number of domains
• Unlimited disk space & data transfer
• Free data backup and restore
• Unlimited web space
• Free site migration service
• Nightly automatic data backups
• Fast servers (LiteSpeed using SSD, HTTP/2, PHP7, built-in caching + more)
• Free SSL certificate & Cloudflare CDN
• PowerCacher Technology
• Hosting account isolation of servers
• Real-time security scanning
• Free SEO tools

Cons:  

• No 24/7 phone support
• Setup & domain fees aren’t refundable
• Confusing (a bit misleading) pricing
• No data centers in Asia

Plans Available

GreenGeeks plan starts from $10.95 per month.

Custom support

GreenGeeks guarantee 99% uptime for your WordPress website. If your not 100% satisfied you can avail of their 30 days money back guarantee. They provide Phone and Live Chat support and a 24/7 email tech support.

Pricing

12. Pressable

Vid Luther founded pressable in 2010 after deciding to change the web host market by offering managed WordPress hosting solutions so website owners could focus on creating great content. They’re well-known for being one of the first and most well-established managed WordPress web host companies.

Pressable is formerly known as ZippyKid. It is a unique Managed Hosting platform and a self-rated #1 in customer satisfaction.

Pressable builds its services from custom RackSpace hardware and receives highly satisfied clients and testimonials.

Automattic acquired Pressable after a few years of hosting WordPress websites. Automatic is the company founded by Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the WordPress software.

Pressable’s impressive infrastructure has been carefully optimized for the WordPress CMS and strives to deliver the fastest loading times without any downtime. They strive to put you first and go the extra mile.

Pressable plans include free WordPress website migrations that help you easily migrate your site hosted by a different provider to Pressable. You only need to sign-up. For manual site migration, Pressable also has its own WordPress migration plugin to simplify the process.

Pressable assigned a staff member once you sign up with their hosting service. This dedicated staff member will help you set up your account, start a new site or manage your migration.

Features

Pressable offers many features, which include:

• Unlimited storage
• Personalized onboarding, including a free website migration
• Automatic daily backups.
• Automatic malware scan and brute force attack protection
• Easy to use account area
• In-house CDN, storing your information around the world for faster loading times
• Jetpack premium plan
• Rackspace Hybrid cloud servers.
• SFTP access, so your data is safe even while in transit.
• SSL support for users to set up their shop and secure their customers.
• Malware scanning and removal.

Pros:

• High-quality and reliable hosting service designed to cater specifically for businesses and developers.
• It comes with malware detection and removal, SFTP, SSL, and CDN, etc.

Cons:

• On the pricier side of managed hosting providers and might not offer the most extensive plans for those with special hosting needs.

Plans Available

Pressable offers a risk-free 90-day guarantee on all plans. There are three tiers — Basic Use, Moderate Use, and High Volume Use — and three packages in each tier.

Customer Support

Pressable’s customer support access is limited based on the plan you purchase. Everyone has access to a 24/7 ticket support system, but you have to purchase a higher-tier package if you want access to their live chat support. They have a blog with articles on WordPress tips, tricks, and news.

Pricing

13. Pagely

Pagely is a managed WordPress web host that provides users with premium features, catering to developers and enterprise-level projects. This web host will cost more, but in return, you have a powerful web hosting package.

Pagely is a more developer-centred solution with its advanced and more complicated features. Pagely is now using Amazon’s servers, which gives them access to many of Amazon’s advanced features. It allows you to use features such as SSH, staging, Git integration, WP-CLI and more. You will also get the VPS power and privacy features.

Pagely put emphasis on your website’s security. It focused on making fast loading websites with great features such as automatic WordPress Core updates, plugin updates, daily backups, and a PressArmor custom WordPress security configuration to keep your site safe from hackers and attackers.

Pagely offers white-glove site migration of two websites for free, with a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the service.

Features

Pagely offers many features, which include:

• Entry-level to enterprise-level hosting packages
• 30-Day money-back guarantee
• Security to prevent backdoors, malware, and other malicious attacks
• Great for entrepreneurs and agencies
• Developer-friendly tools such as GIT, staging, and SSH
• Automatic updates for WordPress Core and plugin.
• Get millisecond load time with advanced Varnish caching.
• Free reign on plugins.
• Complete and real-time malware scanning and removal for your WordPress site, and protects you from redundant firewalls and DDoS.
• PRESSCDN: This service starts at $9/month.

Pros:

• Feature-rich and security-focused Managed Hosting for your WordPress website.
• Comes with PRESSCDN and varnish caching for faster site load times.
• Real-time malware monitoring.
• Advanced developer features.
• Automated daily backups.
• Built-in redundancy.
• Great scalability.
• You can use any plugin or theme on your website.
• Supports a large number of sites for each plan.

Cons:

• More costly than some managed hosting providers.
• The most expensive with a starting price of $199 / month.
• Phone Support is not available on all plans.

Plans Available

Plans range from $199 per month for their VBurst-1 package to $2249 per month for their VPS-2+ [HA] package.

Customer Support

To get support from Pagely, you can check out their online FAQ as well as their online messaging system.

Pricing

14. InstaWP Live

InstaWP Live is a managed WordPress hosting service built for speed, security, and ease of use. Whether you’re an agency, freelancer, or business owner, this platform enables a seamless workflow from staging to production with one-click deployment. It ensures lightning-fast performance, robust security, and seamless scalability.

This hosting service offers:

• Instant Site Deployment – Launch WordPress sites in seconds.
• Edge Caching & Global CDN – Blazing-fast load times worldwide.
• Seamless Staging-to-Live Workflow – Develop and deploy effortlessly.
• Built-in WP-CLI, SSH & Git Support – Power-packed developer tools.

With built-in advanced caching, it ensures peak website performance, delivering fast load times and a seamless user experience.

InstaWP Live lets you choose from multiple global data centers, allowing you to host multiple websites on a highly optimized infrastructure.

This hosting is fully compatible with all major WordPress themes and plugins, enabling you to build a professional WordPress website in minutes. With seamless integration, you get:

• Automatic WordPress Installation – Start building instantly.
• Preconfigured Starter Templates – Launch your site in just a few clicks.
• Easy-to-Use Dashboard – Manage servers and applications effortlessly.

Features

• 1-Click Staging & Deployment – Move sites from dev to live effortlessly.
• Global CDN & Edge Caching – Ultra-fast page load speeds.
• Automated Backups & Failover Protection – Stay secure & recover instantly.
• Developer-Ready Environment – Full support for WP-CLI, SSH, and Git.
• DDoS Protection & WAF – Enterprise-grade security built-in.
• Flexible Hosting Plans – Choose based on your needs.

Pros

• Instant WordPress setup with pre-configured templates.
• Ultra-low latency hosting with edge caching.
• Seamless site staging and production workflows.
• Full-stack developer support (SSH, Git, WP-CLI).
• 99.9% uptime guarantee with real-time failover.

Cons

• Limited to WordPress hosting only.
• Custom plans required for high-traffic sites if they need burst mode support.
• Advanced features may have a learning curve.

Pricing

InstaWP Live offers flexible hosting plans based on RAM, storage, and bandwidth. Below is an example of our pricing:

Types of Web Hosting Services

There are a few types of packages you should know before paying for web hosting, most of them go by different names, which can be confusing, we know, but essentially they are mostly built the same way.

Shared Hosting

• The website is stored on the same server as many other websites.
• The hosting plan is cheap because you’re sharing the same server performance across hundreds of other websites.
• Hosting providers and the website owner get a lot of people to pay for shared resources.
• You need to update your website manually with most of the hosting service providers.
• Backups only available through third-party plugins.
• Speed optimization only available through third-party plugins.
• General security mechanisms on the server itself. Added security through third-party plugins.
• No additional database optimization.
• You are only allowed a limited number of visits to your website.
• Designed to be working together with a range of different website scripts and platforms.
• The traffic surges and other resource-intensive processes will slow down your website and everyone connected to the same server.

Virtual Private Server Hosting

• Each website has its respective server, but you’re still sharing a physical server with other website owners.
• A VPS hosting plan is the perfect middle ground for website owners, who use VPS hosting, and want the power of dedicated hosting but they don’t have the technical knowledge to run one.
• Best for website owners who want more control without using a dedicated server.
• Provides larger storage space and more customization options.
• Not capable of handling incredibly high traffic levels or spikes in usage.
• Site performance affects other sites connected with the server.
• Offers the same cost with shared hosting with control features the same with dedicated hosting.
• VPS hosting packages boasts more storage space, more customisation, and is an excellent choice for advanced users who needs specific software and package installations.

Dedicated Hosting

• You are renting a physical server.
• You are responsible for everything, including setting up and managing your server.
• You will have to perform ongoing updates, patches, and perform other server management skills.
• You will have full control — root access — to your server.
• You are responsible for everything from security to the type of operating system you want to run.
• Provides complete control for websites with very high traffic.
• This is the most expensive hosting service and required deep technical knowledge.

Cloud Hosting

• Composed of several computers working together while sharing and combining their computing resources.
• Allows flexibility and makes scaling possible. Your site can grow over time, using as many resources as it requires, while paying only for what they need.
• Users can use as many resources as they need.
• Companies work via a network and consume computing resources as a utility.
• Resources are spread across multiple servers, which reduces downtime if a server were to malfunction.

Managed Hosting

• Includes hardware and software setup, configuration, and maintenance.
• Automatic site/WordPress updates.
• Automatic daily/weekly backups.
• Built-in caching and CDN networks for speed optimization.
• Built-in security mechanisms optimised for WordPress.
• Built-in database optimisation for WordPress.
• Scalability optimisations (servers capable of handling more traffic if need be).
• Server settings optimised explicitly for WordPress software.

Things To Consider When Choosing a Managed WordPress Web Host

Before you only look at your pocketbook to decide which web host to go with, let’s go over a few things you should consider.

Server Reliability, Uptime, and Security

If your website is your business, any downtime is losing money. Don’t disappoint your visitors with a site that won’t load. The main job of a web host is to ensure your website stays accessible and online.

Most reputable companies offer a 99% uptime, with some going even further and offering a 99.9% uptime and a money-back guarantee.

A great web host offers other security features such as:

• Access Restriction – Access is heavily restricted to the server’s root. Unauthorised root access means the user has complete control of the server and all resources.
• Network Monitoring – A web hosting company will regularly monitor their network for intrusions, unauthorized activity, and downtime. They will fix any server issues before it grows into a bigger problem.
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Firewalls – SSL encryption ensures the sensitive data that flows through your website is secure and private. A web host will also have a web application firewall to help prevent SQL injections, cross-site scripting, and other vulnerabilities.
• Distributed Denial of Service Prevention (DDoS) – A DDoS attack floods your website with so much traffic that it will become unavailable to real visitors. Just like cloud computing, they use a distributed network of computers to make this happen. It’s hard to stop a DDoS attack, but many web hosts have the proper tools to mitigate any attacks if they occur.
• Malware Protection – Regular file scans are performed on client accounts. A good web host will have software to help identify and remove any malware.
• Backups – Having a backup of your large website is a must. Your backup needs to be offsite, updated frequently, and updated automatically. This will remove any human memory errors.

Reputation

What are people saying about the company? Are they genuine reviews, or are they fluff reviews written to get more sales?

One of the easiest ways to measure a business’ success is their overall reputation. If a web host fulfills their promises and provides value for what they’re charging for over the years, word will get around. Look for reviews from third-party sources. Can you find any reviews about them in a tech publication? What do they say?

Check multiple sources for reviews — if the reviews are generally positive, you can trust you’ll be in good hands.

Ease of Use

It’s important to be able to use whatever service you’re buying. Does your web host have an easy to use the control panel? Managed WordPress web hosts generally offer one-click configuration and can help get your website up and running faster.

What good is a service if you can’t figure out how to use it? When checking for reviews, make notes of what people say about how comfortable their service is to use.

There are many web management tasks as a website owner you need to complete. This includes:

• Setting up redirects
• Managing your SSL
• Domain name management
• Managing domain email addresses
• Adding new applications, databases, or options to your website
• Backup management
• Upgrading or renewing your hosting or domain services

You don’t want to waste your time trying to figure out how to perform your daily, weekly, and monthly duties. Look for a provider that makes the process easy with an excellent interface.

Customer Service

Website owners have the luxury of working whenever they want on their website. If you’re up late at night working on your website and run across a problem, the last thing you want to do is wait until the morning for customer support. I mean, let’s be honest, whenever something on your website breaks, you want it fixed now.

It can be frustrating to watch your website remain nonfunctional as you sit there hopelessly trying to fix it.

Make sure the web host you choose has top-notch customer support available all hours of the day. Some companies offer multiple ways to get in touch, including phone, email, and live chat.

Documentation

Along with a responsive customer service department, your web host should have resources for getting started. A reputable web host will have a comprehensive set of supporting documents, so see what the company offers.

Documentation could include using features offered in your package, domain management, account management, and fixing common errors. The amount of documentation provided varies by company, but all web hosts we will compare in this article have excellent documentation.

Account Limitations

It’s important to know the requirements your website needs before you choose a web host. Each company will have different account limitations — from storage to the amount of traffic your site receives. Can you upgrade your package or do you get charged if you exceed your limit?

Did you know some web hosts can temporarily or permanently ban or discontinue your web hosting if your website uses excessive amounts of CPU processing?

Take your time to go through the terms and conditions so you know what you’re signing up for. If the company doesn’t provide clear terms of engagement such as suspension decisions being at the discretion of the company’s management, buyer beware.

Domain Management

You’re going to need a domain name for your website. What happens if you want to start a second website? Many web hosts offer packages that limit your usage to one account, while others provide multiple websites and domains.

Fees, Costs, and Variety of Plans

Most web host companies offer an enticing pricing deal during signup; however, renewal charges could more than triple after. Be sure to check the renewal charges after your discount period.

Many companies offer multiple packages — adding features and removing limitations as you get more expensive. This web host allows a beginner to get started with one package, and an agency can expand with another.

Additional Features

All web hosts offer the same service — to host your website and make it available for the world to access. Additional features such as a page builder, one-click installs, included email inboxes, all add value to their packages.

Page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder create fully-functional professional looking websites quickly, without having to know how to program. Many web hosts offer some page builders or one-click website builders.

Managed WordPress Host FAQs

The Best Managed WordPress Hosting Company

Out of the 13 web hosting companies we reviewed, Hostinger is the cheapest to get started. For $0.80 per month — $2.15 per month upon renewal — you can have one website, one email account, and 100 GB of bandwidth.

When it comes to overall value, we’d still recommend SiteGround. It’s cheap plans, amazing customer support, and blazing fast EVERYTHING is just what you need to get your site off the ground!

As you can see, there’s a lot to think about when choosing a web host!

It’s about much more than just the money. Consider speed, storage, customer service, uptime, security and extra features.

The newer to managing a blog you are, the more support you could benefit from, so factor that in too.

The 13 WordPress hosts we’ve compared here all offer a great value and features needed to get your WordPress website up and running. Choose one of these or someone completely different, it’s entirely up to you!

If you are looking forward to hosting videos, check out our video hosting guide.

We already have a guide on Setting up WordPress, Hosting and Domain where we will walk you through the various steps you’ll need to take to get your blog up and running.

Ever wondered about WooCommerce pricing? Is it truly free to set up an online store with the popular eCommerce plugin?

If you’re considering WooCommerce, you’re likely curious about the true costs involved.

We’ll break down everything you need to know about WooCommerce pricing and its impact on your bottom line.

Here’s the truth: While WooCommerce itself is free, there are additional expenses to consider when building an online store.

As a store owner, it’s crucial to understand how these costs can affect your profits.

You wouldn’t want to invest time and effort into setting up a free platform only to find out unexpected costs down the road!

This article will discuss:

• How WooCommerce works. It’s important to understand the real thing
• A clear picture of the costs involved – a detailed analysis
• SureCart as a powerful and cost effective option for your WordPress eCommerce needs

Let’s dive in and explore how WooCommerce works!

How WooCommerce Pricing Works

According to Builtwith, WooCommerce is currently active on over 3.2 million websites, in addition to 8 million sites that have used WooCommerce in the past.

The plugin is free and easy to install on your WordPress website. However, to make your store fully functional, you’ll need some additional components.

The plugin itself is free and easy to install on your WordPress website. However, to make your store fully functional, you’ll need some additional components.

This is where WooCommerce extensions, hosting, themes, and essential plugins come in.

These are the building blocks of a WooCommerce store and play a crucial role in its overall success.

Knowing about them early gives you more time to pick the best options for building an outstanding store.

Here’s how the overall WooCommerce pricing works:

With the free WooCommerce plugin in place, let’s delve into the real costs involved in setting up your online store.

Must-have Features For Online Stores

The eCommerce industry is a multi-trillion dollar powerhouse, and online stores with exceptional user experiences stand out the most.

What were once considered advanced features are now essential for most shoppers.

These include secure payments, multiple payment methods, customer dashboards, and buy now pay later.

Let’s look at some examples:

A small pastry shop catering to a local community might run perfectly well with basic shipping options.

A clothing store with nationwide delivery would likely struggle without an advanced shipping rate calculator.

An online store selling multiple digital products might require tools for payment installments or subscriptions.

Depending on your business and industry, your needs will vary.

Here are some of the features most eCommerce stores use to provide a great shopping experience.

We’ll use these features in the following sections to find out how much you need to invest for setting up a WooCommerce store.

Let’s start with the essential steps.

WooCommerce Extensions: Free vs Premium

When you set up your store, you’ll have access to a vast library of extensions that can enhance its functionality.

While the WooCommerce marketplace offers hundreds of extensions, only a small proportion (around 11%) are free.

Many free extensions on WordPress.org also have premium versions with more features.

This creates a pricing structure where you can start with a basic setup using free extensions. But as your store scales, you’ll likely need to invest in premium extensions for advanced functions.

For example, CartFlows, a popular WooCommerce plugin for abandoned cart recovery, has a free version with essential features.

To create more advanced marketing and sales funnels, you’ll need to purchase a premium plan ($99, $189 or $299).

It’s important to note that some extensions might have recurring fees or require additional purchases.

You’ll also find numerous WooCommerce extensions for similar tasks with varying prices. This can make it challenging to choose the best option.

For instance, if you search for “coupon” in the WooCommerce marketplace, you’ll encounter several coupon extensions with different features and price points.

Pro Tip: Before selecting a WooCommerce extension, check its popularity, customer reviews, and features.

Let’s take a look at some features from our previous list to illustrate the breakdown of free and premium extensions:

As you can see from the table, adding all these features to your WooCommerce store can increase your yearly costs by at least $137.

Remember, this is just an estimate, and the actual cost will depend on the specific extensions you choose and their pricing plans.

While there are free themes available, themes specifically designed for WooCommerce might cost extra. We’ll talk about that shortly.

Estimated Cost Of Setting Up A WooCommerce Store

Now you understand how WooCommerce store costs can vary depending on your needs, let’s delve into the estimated costs associated with setting up your store.

We’ll build a sample store from scratch and explore different scenarios to show you the costs for both a small and large eCommerce store.

Let’s begin with domain registration.

Domain Registration – Essential

The first step towards building your WooCommerce store is securing a domain name. This will be your online store’s address on the internet.

The exact price can vary depending on the specific domain name you choose and the chosen extension (like .com, .net, or .org).

For instance, as the image shows, a .com domain for “iwantomakewoostore” is available for $9 on Namecheap in the first year, but renews at $14 per year.

The price can also fluctuate depending on the registrar you choose.

Crazy Domains, for example, might offer the same domain name for $14.40 per year.

As you can see, there’s some variation in pricing based on both the extension and the registrar.

In short, a .com domain name will typically cost around $15 per year on average.

For Beginners:

If you’re a beginner and domain names seem a bit technical, don’t worry. This tutorial will guide you through everything you need to know.

Hosting – Essential

If you haven’t registered your domain yet, some web hosts offer a free domain name in the first year.

This can be a nice perk for beginners to save on initial costs. Web hosts such as Cloudways and Hostinger are a great option.

The success of your eCommerce website depends on a reliable web host.

A web host stores your website’s files and makes it accessible on the internet.

When choosing a web host, consider storage space, bandwidth, security features, and customer support.

For beginners who’d like to learn more about web hosting and how it functions, here’s a helpful tutorial that explains everything in detail.

If you’re a fan of watching the whole thing, we also have an in depth video tutorial for you.

While affordable hosting plans are attractive, consider your needs. A basic shared plan might not be sufficient for a high-traffic store.

Many popular web hosts offer dedicated hosting plans for WooCommerce, often starting at around $45 per year.

These plans are usually optimized for the specific needs of online stores.

As your business grows and your traffic increases, you can upgrade to a more powerful plan.

WordPress and WooCommerce – Essential

Installing WordPress is a breeze and completely free.

Most web hosts offer one-click WordPress install through the control panel.

You can also install it yourself if you prefer.

If you’d prefer to practice building your website on a computer before making it live, this tutorial can guide you.

Once your website is set up, you can install WooCommerce for free from Plugins > Add New in the WordPress dashboard.

You might wonder whether to install WooCommerce or your WordPress theme first.

The good news is that it doesn’t matter! You can install either one first.

Some themes, like Astra, offer starter templates specifically designed for WooCommerce stores.

These templates include pre-built layouts and features, and even install WooCommerce automatically.

This can be a convenient way to get a professional-looking store up and running quickly.

We’ll explore starter themes in more detail in the following section.

Theme – Essential

A good thing about WooCommerce is that it works with a wide variety of free and premium WordPress themes.

You can download one from WordPress.org, or from the WooCommerce marketplace.

While free themes can be tempting, keep in mind that they might offer limited features. They can lack customization options, or customer support compared to premium themes.

Some free themes don’t offer paid upgrades, which means you might need to completely switch to a new theme later on.

This can be a time-consuming process and can negatively impact your SEO (search engine optimization).

Your theme is a crucial element, as it determines the design of your online store – the first impression for your visitors.

A visually unappealing theme can lead to a higher bounce rate and lower conversion rates.

In the long run, a well-designed theme can be a worthwhile investment.

If this scares you, don’t worry. Astra has you covered!

Astra is a popular free theme that offers a good balance of features and ease of use.

It also includes Starter Templates, which are pre-built website designs specifically tailored for WooCommerce stores.

This allows you to get a professional-looking store up and running quickly. For free.

Astra also offers a pro version starting at $49/year with additional features.

Check out some of our store themes.

Brand Store

Jewellery Store

Fast Food Restaurant

There are templates for every type of store and the ability to customize everything you see on the page so yours is unique.

Extensions/Plugins – Essential + Optional

This section focuses on how much more you might need to spend on WooCommerce extensions.

The cost of extensions depends on the specific needs of your business. A small store can often function successfully with just the basic features included with WooCommerce.

For example, if you sell a small number of ebooks, you might only need essential extensions.

These might include extensions for downloadable products, reviews or a contact form.

If you run a busy health store selling a wider variety of products, you will likely need premium extensions.

This may include extensions for:

• Recurring payments
• Discounts/coupons
• Order tracking
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Product reviews
• Email marketing
• Affiliate plugins
• Subscription management

Let’s compare the costs for those two types of WooCommerce stores side-by-side to get a clearer picture of the total investment.

We’ll factor in the domain and hosting costs again for a more comprehensive comparison.

These are approximate costs and use popular plugins for example only.

SEO, Performance and Security – Essential

To run a successful eCommerce business, your website needs to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs) to attract organic traffic.

You can achieve this by using plugins for:

• SEO
• Performance optimization
• Website security

These are essential plugins for your WooCommerce store.

For instance, free SEO plugins like Yoast or Rank Math can get you started.

However, for a more comprehensive approach and higher rankings, you might consider upgrading to a premium plan.

Yoast’s premium plan starts at $99/year, while Rank Math’s starts at $84/year.

Website speed and security are crucial for building customer trust and driving sales.

Free security and caching plugins are available and are good enough to get you started.

Premium options like WP Rocket cache plugin ($44/year) or Wordfence security plugin ($119/year) offer more advanced features.

The cost of essential premium extensions can up by $150 and $250 per year depending on your specific needs.

By investing in these plugins, you’ll be well on your way to running a professional WooCommerce store that attracts more traffic and boosts your revenue potential.

A Few WooCommerce Challenges

WooCommerce has been the go-to eCommerce plugin for WordPress since its launch in 2011.

It was initially developed to sell physical products and digital products came later.

There are a few things you should know before committing to WooCommerce:

• Keeping it smooth: Running a WooCommerce store takes some work to keep it fast and user-friendly
• More features, more work: Extra features often come from addons which can slow things down as your store grows. You might need to pay extra for speed boosters and powerful hosting
• Help on your own: Since it’s free, getting help can involve searching forums instead of calling a support team
• Free, but not all free: While WooCommerce itself is free, many features require paid addons.
• Older tech: As it’s getting on a bit, WooCommerce might not be the best for all the latest online store challenges

Are you thinking that choosing WooCommerce might require more time and effort to maintain than you anticipated?

Is it more expensive than you initially realized?

If WooCommerce seems like more work than you bargained for, WordPress offers other options.

One such option is SureCart. Let’s quickly find out where it stands out in terms of cost and performance.

SureCart: A Powerful Cost Effective eCommerce Solution

SureCart offers a fresh approach to eCommerce, designed to tackle modern online store challenges.

It’s a headless eCommerce solution. It separates the customer-facing storefront from the behind-the-scenes operations that power your store.

This differs from WooCommerce, which relies on numerous plugins to add features.

With SureCart, you get all the desired features simply by installing it on your website.

You can manage your store through a plugin interface while SureCart handles the heavy lifting on its secure servers.

This approach ensures features run smoothly. Your store is more secure, and can easily scale to accommodate your store’s growth – all at no additional cost.

We could delve deeper into SureCart’s benefits compared to the traditional approach, but let’s keep it concise.

To help you see how SureCart stacks up against WooCommerce, let’s discuss a few key factors.

SureCart excels in areas like:

• Ease of use: No need to manage multiple plugins for essential features.
• Performance: Headless design delivers faster load times for customers.
• Security: Backend functionality on secure servers reduces the risk of security breaches.

If you want to explore SureCart’s features in detail, check out our comprehensive review here.

WooCommerce vs SureCart: Features Comparison

Like WooCommerce, you can set up a full online store with the free version of SureCart.

Unlike WooCommerce, SureCart offers many powerful features without paid extensions.

Let’s do a little comparison!

Features	WooCommerce	SureCart
Products	Physical, digital and services	Physical, digital, services and donations
Payment processors	Cash on delivery, Bank transfer, Check	Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Manual
Coupons and discounts	(basic)
Analytics
Order bumps and upsells
Pay what you want
Cart abandonment
Customer service portal
Advance shipping rates
Customizable emails
Customizable invoices
Returns management
Inventory management
Tax calculation
Manual tax override
Affiliate marketing
Subscription management
Installment plans

SureCart vs WooCommerce: Cost Comparison

Now you understand the features available in SureCart’s free version, let’s take a closer look.

All the features in the chart are included in the free version of SureCart but require a paid extension in WooCommerce.

Features	Included in WooCommerce?	Extension Price
Donations		$99/year
Pay what you want		$59/year
Cart abandonment		$79/year
Customer service portal		$49/year
Advance shipping rates		$119/year
Customizable emails		$69/year
Customizable invoices		$79/year
Returns management		$129/year
Inventory management		$149/year
Manual tax override		$59/year
Affiliate marketing		$179/year
Subscription management		$279/year
Total		$1348/year

Cost of Setting Up a SureCart Store

To wrap up our discussion on SureCart, let’s explore the investment required to set up a store.

We’ll revisit the scenarios we used earlier for WooCommerce. Only this time, the table will focus solely on SureCart.

With domain and hosting remaining similar, setting up a small online store with SureCart is comparable to WooCommerce.

However, SureCart offers significant value right from the start, with many essential features included in the free plan.

Even if you upgrade to SureCart’s highest plan (Scale), the cost is lower than building a WooCommerce store with the same level of functionality.

Ready for the power and affordability of SureCart? Get started here.

Still unsure?

We’ve created a detailed comparison of the top three eCommerce plugins: WooCommerce vs Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) vs SureCart.

See which platform best suits your needs!

Conclusion

WooCommerce is a popular free plugin for building online stores. But when it comes to pricing, there’s more to consider than the initial cost.

While the plugin itself is free, the essential features you need to run a successful eCommerce store often come from paid extensions.

The way it’s designed, you get bare minimum features that usually aren’t enough to sell your products and services.

You’ll need extensions and plugins to handle things like payments, shipping, marketing, and more.

Especially when competing with rivals, premium extensions become almost essential. Depending on your business model, your costs can inflate significantly.

However, WooCommerce isn’t the only eCommerce platform out there.

If you want to lower costs without compromising on features and performance, give SureCart a try.

How much does your WooCommerce store cost you? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Are you looking for ways to add some spark to your writing? Want to make sure your WordPress website looks the best it can be? Easy-to-read, grammatically correct content is the bare minimum for most readers today.

Most word processors and the WordPress page and post editor come with native spell checkers, but for the best results, you should use a dedicated grammar checker.

These tools typically offer a lot more than spell checking and will help add a professional touch to your writing.

When you’re building a website that represents you or your business, typos and grammatical errors can detract from the professional persona you’re trying to project.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through some of the best grammar checkers in 2025. If you use these tools correctly, you’ll see instant improvements in your writing!

The Top 16 Grammar Checkers in 2025

Now, you know what to look for as we consider some of the best grammar checkers out there. There are quite a few, and some offer some unique features.

Here they are:

1. Grammarly

Grammarly is the most popular online grammar checker tool and is trusted by 30 million people.

So what makes it so widely popular?

Grammarly helps to tidy up basic spelling and grammatical errors. Beyond this, the tool also offers suggestions on syntax, structure and conciseness as well as tone.

Used properly, it will make your posts and pages cleaner, snappier and more direct.

Grammarly’s free version is feature-rich but it also has premium and business plans that offer even more features. For example, Grammarly’s detailed tone analysis feature is only available on its paid plans.

One of the standout features of Grammarly is its flexibility. You can use the app in a browser, download it to your desktop, or install a Chrome extension which will allow you to proofread your content as you work in online spaces such as Google Docs or WordPress.

Grammarly Pricing

Grammarly’s entry-level plan is free. Its premium plan costs $30 per month when billed monthly, with its quarterly and annual plans costing $20 and $12 per month, respectively.

Is Grammarly the Best Grammar Checker for WordPress users?

Pros:

• Feature-rich free version
• Multi-platform integration
• Plagiarism checker
• Affordable premium plan
• Cloud storage

Cons:

• No multi-language capability

2. Ginger

Ginger is a web-based grammar checker with some similarities to Grammarly. While it offers some unique features, it also doesn’t have some important ones.

With Ginger, you can check for grammatical accuracy and receive suggestions on how to improve your writing.

One standout feature is that it allows you to automatically fix all the errors in your content without having to go through them individually.

Additionally, Ginger has a sentence rephrasing tool that may come in handy when repurposing some content.

You might also find its speech-to-text feature interesting. While this doesn’t necessarily improve the quality of your writing, it might offer some convenience at those times when you simply can’t bear to type another word.

Yet another neat feature of Ginger is its ability to instantly translate content into 40 languages. The drawback is that this feature is only available on its premium plans.

Ginger also doesn’t have a plagiarism checker.

Ginger Pricing

Ginger is free best grammar checker tool to use but has a single premium plan with the same features, billable on a monthly, annual or biannual basis. The plans cost $13.99, $89.88, and $167.76 respectively.

Is Ginger the Best Grammar Checker for WordPress users?

Pros:

• Feature-rich free version
• Sentence rephrasing options
• Translation in over 40 languages
• Mass correction

Cons:

• No external integrations
• No plagiarism checker

3. Hemingway Editor

The Hemingway Editor is named after the famous writer, Ernest Hemingway. The app aims to make your writing bold and clear, suggesting sentences that could be rewritten to provide more clarity.

It does this using a rating system that shows how easy reading would be for readers at various grades of schooling. Grade 6 is the recommended level, and the idea is that good content should be easy enough for grade six readers to understand.

The app will also underline grammatical errors but this is not its primary focus. It merely highlights these errors without going into much detail.

The free version of Hemingway is entirely web-based so you won’t be able to use it as you work in WordPress.

If you would like to have seamless integration with your writing tools, you can upgrade to the Hemingway desktop app for either Mac or Windows.

Hemingway Editor Pricing

Hemingway Editor is available for free online, but you can purchase the desktop version for $19.99.

Is Hemingway Editor the Best Grammar Checker for WordPress users?

Pros:

• Arguably the best value-for-money with its free version
• Publish directly to WordPress or Medium from the desktop app

Cons:

• External integrations are not available in the online version.
• No support for translation or other languages apart from English
• No plagiarism checker

4. The LanguageTool

The LanguageTool is available for use both offline and online. You can also use it as a free add-on in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari and Opera.

Add-ins are available for Google Docs, LibreOffice, and OpenOffice. You can also simply upload and edit your content in your browser.

Whatever your preference, the LanguageTool comes with some interesting features. For example, grammar checking is available in English, French, Portuguese, German and Spanish.

It is also sophisticated enough to recognize incorrect numbers.

The one notable drawback to using the LanguageTool is its limitations on use. This is capped at 10, 000 characters per check on the free plan, and 60,000 characters per check on its paid plans.

The LanguageTool Pricing

There is a free version, an Individual plan that costs $4.92 per month, and a Teams plan that starts at $8.85 per month for two users.

Is the LanguageTool the Best Grammar Checker for WordPress users?

Pros:

• Multi-language capability
• Feature-rich free plan
• Capability of recognizing incorrect numbers

Cons

• Character limits are not suitable for editing lengthy documents
• No plagiarism checker

5. WhiteSmoke

WhiteSmoke offers the basic features you would expect of a grammar checker, with more features available in its advanced plans.

In its entry-level Web plan, you can use its online editor to proofread your grammar and punctuation, check for plagiarism, and translate your content into over 50 languages.

For more features such as one-click instant proofreading, and integration with most writing platforms including WordPress, you’ll need to upgrade to the Premium or Business plans.

WhiteSmoke Pricing

Whitesmoke does not have a free version. Instead, it charges $5 per month for its Web plan, $6.66 per month for its Premium plan, and $11.50 per month for its Business plan.

Is Whitesmoke the Best Grammar Checker for WordPress users?

Pros:

• Feature-rich entry-level plan
• Plagiarism checker
• Extensive multi-language capability

Cons:

• No free plan

6. Jetpack/AfterTheDeadline

Jetpack is a popular WordPress toolkit that offers a bunch of useful features ranging from security to performance.

One of these features is a grammar checker tool which is an integration of an external grammar checker called After The Deadline.

With seamless integration, Jetpack allows you to proofread your content while working in the WordPress editor.

After the Deadline doesn’t provide any advanced features such as a plagiarism checker or multi-language capability so it’s not quite as powerful as some of the other grammar checkers on this list.

Additionally, After the Deadline is no longer actively maintained by its developers, and Jetpack doesn’t include it in its latest version.

After the Deadline is still available for use and Jetpack still includes it in its older versions.

Jetpack Pricing

To use Jetpack, you’ll need to have an account on WordPress.com. Jetpack is free for nonprofits, and businesses can decide how much they would like to pay.

Is Jetpack the Best Grammar Checker for WordPress users?

Pros

• Seamless integration with WordPress
• Affordable

Cons

• After the Deadline is no longer maintained
• No plagiarism checker
• No multi-language feature

7. Zoho Writer

Zoho Writer is an app focused on writing and is part of the Zoho Workplace ecosystem. That’s the company’s digital workplace that includes many other productivity tools.

It’s a powerful word processor available for desktop and mobile devices. Among all its features you’ll find a writing assistant called Zia.

This assistant will help you correct your spelling and grammar mistakes, improve the readability of your text and improve quality.

It even has a cliché detector to prevent your content from sounding too generic!

If you don’t want to use the full Writer application, you can install the Chrome extension called BluePencil to have Zia available on any web page.

Zoho Writer pricing

You can use the BluePencil Chrome extension for free forever. It will help you correct spelling and give you grammar and style suggestions.

For $3/mo you can also get access to the individual plan.

This includes a summarized error report, the readability score, a popup editor and a word cloud dictionary to save special words so the extension no longer shows them as spelling errors.

Pros:

• You can use it with its powerful full word processor application if you want more than just a grammar checker
• Great interface. It shows spelling, grammar, reading and quality suggestions in different cards for quickly seeing the health of your text
• Transliteration to type in Tamil or Hindi with an English keyboard
• You can turn on and off the different types of suggestions to adapt them to the style you’re writing. Like a casual email to your friends

Cons:

• You need a Zoho account to start using it
• The best features are behind a paywall
• It doesn’t work offline

8. OutWrite (formerly GradeProof)

OutWrite is a writing assistant that seeks to be more than just a simple grammar and spelling corrector.

For instance you can activate a thesaurus to find an alternative to a word, which will vary depending on the context.

OutWrite uses AI to help remove passive voice and suggests other styling and structural improvements. You can even select a phrase and ask it to rewrite it for you.

In addition to the browser extension and the web version you can also install an addon for Word and Google Docs. This allows you to enjoy its features in two of the most widely used word processors.

OutWrite pricing

You can use the thesaurus and spelling and grammar suggestions features for free. This plan also includes the apps addons.

If you want access to the more advanced AI features you’ll need to sign up for the Pro plan which costs $25 per month. Although if you pay annually the price is reduced to $10 per month.

Pros:

• The rewriting feature can save a lot of retyping time
• The thesaurus will improve your content even if it’s well-written
• You can also check if your text is free of plagiarism, which will come in handy if you write online
• Free Word addon

Cons:

• The Pro plan is really expensive if you pay it monthly
• It lacks a custom dictionary feature
• Plagiarism checker is capped to 50/mo

9. Scribbr – Quillbot

Scribbr is the grammar checker built into the Quillbot writing assistant.

You can also use it on that platform if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution that offers other tools such as a paraphraser or plagiarism checker.

Scribbr works as a web app, Chrome extension and as a Word addon. And it does so in English, German and French.

As Scribbr is part of a larger suite, it doesn’t offer great features as you’ll find those in other tools from the company, like the plagiarism checker.

It does offer basic tools to automatically correct your grammar, spelling and punctuation though.

Scribbr pricing

Scribbr is completely free.

You can subscribe to Quillbot premium for $9.95/month to unlock more advanced writing tools, but this doesn’t affect Scribbr’s features.

Pros:

• Supports different English dialects (USA, UK, CA, AU)
• Completely free
• Word addon
• Powerful writing tools available

Cons:

• Lacks advanced features like a thesaurus or custom dictionary
• Other features are only available in the paraphraser tool

10. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is an all-in-one solution for writers that is available as a web application, browser extension and desktop app for Windows and Mac.

The application works through reports (potential improvements) and has no less than 20 of them!

In addition to the typical grammar and style corrections in ProWritingAid, you’ll also find redundancy reduction, repetition checks, pronoun reports, a pacing check and many other tools.

ProWritingAid pricing

You can start using ProWritingAid for free with some limitations. There is a Pro version that unlocks all features for $10 per month if you pay annually (or $30 monthly).

If you like the application you might consider the lifetime version, since for a one-time payment of $399 you’ll enjoy it forever.

Pros:

• ProWritingAid everywhere app so you can use it in any application on your desktop computer
• Includes a rephrasing tool
• Creative tools for writers
• Lifetime plan available

Cons:

• The Pro plan is really expensive if you pay monthly
• It has so many tools that it is a bit difficult to start using

11. Google Docs

If you use Google Docs to write your content, you’re lucky. The web app has a grammar checker included so you won’t have to install anything else. 

Just hit the A button on the toolbar and start using it!

As you can imagine this is not the best grammar checker in the world but it does its job of correcting grammar and spelling mistakes. It even allows you to create your own dictionary.

Google Docs grammar checker pricing

Free.

Pros:

• You can create a personal dictionary
• Really easy to use
• You can easily enable it and disable it on demand
• Completely free

Cons:

• Lacks many advanced features
• Only available in the Google Docs editor

12. Word // Microsoft Editor

Similarly to Google Docs, Microsoft has its own grammar checker built in Word. You’ll find it as an Editor button in the toolbar of the Home tab.

Besides spelling and grammar, it also allows you to refine the text, or search for similar publications on the web with just one click.

If you open its preferences you will discover that this grammar checker can help you with a lot of things. It’s really very powerful.

You’ll find the same features in the Chrome and Edge extensions called Microsoft Editor.

Microsoft Word Editor pricing

The free version gives you access to basic grammar and spelling suggestions.

Microsoft 365 unlocks everything. Advanced features like clarity, conciseness, formal language, punctuation conventions, and more.

365 costs $6.99/month and it also includes the whole Office suite.

Pros:

• More than 20 different languages are available
• Free version
• The paid plan includes the whole Office suite
• Really easy to use

Cons:

• The free version is a bit limited
• You can only use it in Word on your desktop as it doesn’t have an everywhere app
• It doesn’t support Google Docs

13. Writer

Writer is not just a grammar checker.

It’s a very professional all-rounder tool that will help you create content quickly thanks to AI, snippets, terms, templates and many more. It will also help you come up with consistent content.

Writer will show you grammar, spelling and punctuation suggestions. There’s also suggestions to improve the clarity, delivery and inclusiveness of your message.

As this is a tool aimed at bloggers it also includes a plagiarism checker.

If you don’t want to use the full suite there is a Chrome extension that offers just the content improvement features.

Writer pricing

Since the grammar checker tool is included in the Writer suite you cannot use it for free.

You’ll have to join the $18 per month plan, which includes many other content creation features.

Pros:

• Instant rewrite of sentences in the style you like
• You can create a style guide documentation site. Very useful if you work with a team
• Personal snippets to boost your writing speed
• Powerful terminology management

Cons:

• Difficult to master as it has many non-grammar-checker-related tools
• It doesn’t have a free version

14. Linguix

Linguix is a tool that will help you write better and improve your personal and professional content.

It’s available as a web version, but also as extensions for a variety of browsers, addons for Microsoft, and as a mobile version. Unfortunately it’s not available as a desktop app.

It has a proprietary algorithm that will correct your grammatical mistakes, give you advanced recommendations to simplify sentences, eliminate clichés and overused words and a content rewriter.

Linguix pricing

You can use the most basic features of Linguix for free.

The Pro plan unlocks advanced suggestions and the sentence rewriter. It costs only $10 per month but only if you pay annually. If you pay monthly the price rises to $30 per month.

There is a lifetime version for $198. If you plan to use it for at least 2 years it makes sense to pick this option.

Pros:

• Available on iOS and Android
• Available as an Outlook addon
• Pretty simple to use
• Lifetime version available

Cons:

• Missing desktop app
• If you pay monthly the price is quite high

15. Chegg Writing

Chegg is a company focused on education. Its Writing application is in charge of helping you get better-written content.

Due to its way of working this is a tool that you’ll use to correct documents that you have already written and not as an assistant for your day-to-day writing.

This is because it doesn’t have a Chrome extension or application.

You’ll have to upload a document to its website so they can analyze it and correct common grammar mistakes and make style and usage corrections.

Chegg Writing pricing

There is a very limited free version of the tool.

The real power is unlocked with a monthly $9.95 subscription that will allow you to submit up to 30 papers a month of 3,000 words each.

Pros:

• Advanced style advice provided by a partnership with Purdue University
• Personalized feedback from real experts
• Tool for creating citations
• Plagiarism checker that includes private content from their database

Cons

• There is no web extension available
• The paid version is limited in papers and words

16. SpellCheckPlus

SpellCheckPlus is a simple and straightforward online grammar checker. 

You can only use it on its website and it has no extension or desktop application. There are apps for iOS and Android but they are quite outdated.

SpellCheckPlus is an app that works very well to quickly correct texts without having to register or install anything.

If you need something for everyday use it’s better to choose one of the other alternatives we have shown you here.

SpellCheckPlus pricing

You can proofread 2,000 characters at a time for free.

The $15/month paid version removes this limitation and adds some non-correction-related extras. Don’t expect to find more power after payment though.

Pros:

• Available in French, Spanish and Italian
• Really simple to use
• It explains in detail where the mistakes are coming from

Cons:

• Lacks many powerful features
• Doesn’t have a web browser extension

FAQs regarding grammar checkers

There are 3 main questions that people have regarding grammar-checking software. Here they are:

Which Is the Best Grammar Checker for WordPress Users?

It’s time for the verdict!

Choosing one of these grammar checkers will be a tough call to make. All of them are great at spotting grammatical errors. Some tools provide a little more by offering features such as a plagiarism checker, and multi-language features.

All things considered, if we had to choose one grammar checker, it would have to be Grammarly for its impressive feature-rich free version.

If you would like to use Grammarly, here are the quick steps to getting started:

Using Grammarly Online

Not only does Grammarly offer sophisticated grammar checking, but it is also available for online use as a browser add-on, or in its web editor. You can also upload and save your content within, and all of these features are available on its free plan.

To get started, using Grammarly online you’ll need to create an account on Grammarly.

Once in, navigate to the apps page.

When you click install on the app you would like, you will be directed to the Chrome Web Store.

Click Add to Chrome. A popup will appear, requiring that you confirm your choice–proceed, and that’s it!

You can also use Grammarly offline, by downloading the desktop app. Simply click on install from the Grammarly app page and run the resulting download on your laptop.

Getting Started With the Top Online Grammar Checkers for WordPress Users

Now that we have walked you through the top six online grammar checkers in 2025, and how to get started using Grammarly, the next step is for you to get out there and produce some great content.

You may also find that using a combination of two of these grammar checkers may offer better results than using one alone.

A common combination is to use a tool like Grammarly to catch and fix grammatical errors, and then use a tool like the Hemingway Editor to improve its readability.

For more tips on how to improve your blog content, check out this post on how to write your first blog post. Experienced writers can glean some useful tips from this too!

Have you used any of these tools in the past? Tell us, in the comments, which one you think is best, or if you think we have missed a great grammar checker that you would recommend!

Looking to create an Elementor contact form quickly and effortlessly?

You’re in the right place! Contact forms are essential for building connections, generating leads, and keeping your site running smoothly.

With Elementor, creating these forms isn’t just easy—it’s fun!

In this guide, we’ll walk you through exactly how to create a sleek Elementor contact form. 

Whether you want to go the free route or explore more advanced features, you’ll have a form ready in no time. 

Ready to dive in and boost engagement?

How To Create A Contact Form With Elementor

There are two methods you can use to add contact forms to your website.

1. The Paid Method: This uses Elementor‘s inhouse widget. You’ll need both Elementor and Elementor Pro installed.
2. The Free Method: Here you’ll need to install a third party plugin and embed the form in the page or post that you built with Elementor.

Both these methods have their own pros and cons. In the next section, we are going to explore each of them.

Add Contact Form with Elementor Pro: In this method, you need to purchase the Elementor Pro license. We totally recommend it because you can customize the look and feel of the form as you want and it fits well within the website.

With this method, you not only get access to all the cool Elementor Pro widgets, you also get to access the huge library of templates that comes with it.

Furthermore, with Elementor Pro, you can completely transform your website!

Here’s how to add a contact form with Elementor Pro in easy 7 steps.

• Step 1: Adding the Elementor Contact Widget to Your Page
• Step 2: Setting Up Your Contact Form Fields
• Step 3: Adding Fields to Your Elementor Contact Form
• Step 4: Setting Where Your Form Submissions Go
• Step 5: Setting Elementor Contact Form Messaging
• Step 6: Styling Your Elementor Contact Form
• Step 7: Publishing Your Elementor Contact Form

Step 1: Adding the Elementor Contact Widget to Your Page

First of all, open the page you want to use the Elementor Contact Form in.

Your homepage and about page are an excellent place for a contact form if you aren’t sure where to put the contact form on your site.

Once you have opened your page in Elementor in the editor pane, you can use the contact form widget :

In Elementor, this is the widget called “Form”.

Drag the form widget onto your page, and you’ll see the basic output of a contact form like this:

Step 2: Setting Up Your Contact Form Fields

There’s a myriad of settings for the form widget in Elementor, and we’ll explore every one of those in-depth later on in the article.

First, let’s focus on the basics.

Elementor pre-populates your form with the necessary fields that any contact form should have:

• Name
• Email (after all, you’ll need this to reply!)
• Message

These are all you need for a basic contact form. But how about if you want more fields?

Do you want to know the client’s budget? Or ask pre-qualifying questions, so when you receive the message, you can quickly narrow down suitable leads and those that aren’t?

Let’s explore those in the next step.

Step 3: Adding Fields to Your Elementor Contact Form

To add a field to your Elementor form, click “Add Item“:

This will create a new item in your contact form like so:

As you can see, there’s a range of settings, so let’s take a look at those:

• Type — this is the type of field that you want to add to the form. There are multiple different field types, including:
  • Text
  • Email
  • Textarea
  • URL
  • Tel
  • Radio
  • Select
  • Checkbox
  • Acceptance
  • Number
  • Date
  • Time
  • File Upload
  • Password
  • HTML
  • Hidden
  • reCAPTCHA
  • reCAPTCHA V3
  • Honeypot

Phew! That’s a lot of field types!

Most are self-explanatory, but there may be some there you’re thinking well, what are they?

Don’t worry. We’ll explain everything.

Next up is the “Label” option. The label is the name of the form field that shows above the contact form. It shows users what input is expected, so ensure it’s something descriptive!

Then there’s the “Placeholder” setting. The placeholder is what shows in the form field when a user hasn’t entered any data. It’s helpful to set the placeholder text as an example of what information you want them to enter.

For example, adding ‘email address’ as the placeholder tells the user you’re expecting an email address in that field.

The penultimate setting is “Required.” This is a simple toggle switch that, when enabled, won’t allow the user to submit the form without filling in the field.

Last is the Column Width setting. Setting the column width allows you to align and stack your fields as required.

For example, if you set the width to 50% and add another area at 50%, the fields will display side-by-side, giving you freedom in how you design your contact form with Elementor.

• Advanced Tab

Next are the options within the “Advanced Tab” part of the new field settings.

There aren’t as many options on this tab, but if anything, they are more confusing.

• Default Value — This is the default value of the field and is different from the placeholder. This is an optional setting used when some kind of value is set by default if the user doesn’t add their own. For example, a minimum value or order in a form.
• ID — The field ID is used to save that field’s data. You usually don’t need to modify this but it has to be unique.
• Shortcode — The shortcode can be used to retrieve the field anywhere on your page. Generally, you don’t need to use this.

Wow, that was a lot of options! Hopefully now you have a good idea of what they all mean.

Step 4: Setting Where Your Form Submissions Go

In the Elementor editor, click on “Email” to display the available options:

There are a lot of fields for email. Out of the box, everything is pre-filled, so if you don’t need anything specific, you can breeze right past this and save your page.

If you want to understand more about the possibilities of the settings for your Elementor contact form, read on.

Here are all the options and what they do:

• To — The email address to which the form submission is sent. Can be sent to multiple email addresses. Enter email addresses separated by commas.
• Subject — The subject of the sent email with the submission, displayed in your email client.
• Message — Here, you can set what fields are sent from your contact form. Using the shortcodes we explored earlier when creating fields, you can set only some of these to send or receive all fields from the submission.
• From Email — The source email address that sends the email. Ensure you whitelist the email address so you receive all your submissions!
• From Name — The name of the person sending the form.
• Reply-to — This field is the email address the reply goes to when you click “reply” in your email client. By default, this is the website’s admin email, but you might want to change this. Click in the dropdown box and set it to the “Email field.”
• CC — Want anyone in the CC of the email? Enter their email address here, send to multiple email addresses (separated by commas).
• BCC — Need to send to a BCC? Enter their email address here, send to multiple email addresses (separated by commas).

Next, you’ll see there’s a meta box field that contains metadata, which you can set to be sent with the form submission.

You don’t usually need to modify or edit this.

Finally, there’s the “Send as” option. The send option allows you to select whether to send the submitted entry as plain text or HTML (defaults to HTML). Again you don’t usually need to change this.

Step 5: Setting Elementor Contact Form Messaging

Elementor’s form editor is more powerful than it initially seems. One of the more advanced features is the ability to modify the messaging on a per-form basis.

Modifying form messages allows for a more personalized feedback process to the end-user rather than sounding like a boring robot.

But just what messages can you customize for your Elementor contact form?

First, you have to enable custom messaging.

Click “Additional Options” and then click the toggle switch for “Custom Messaging” to “Yes.”

As you can see, there are four different messages you can edit, including:

• Success Message — Displays to an end-user once they have submitted the form and filled in correctly (e.g. Your email was successfully sent!).
• Error Message — Display to an end-user when an unknown error has occurred with submitting the form.
• Required Message — Displays when a required form field hasn’t been filled in when the form is submitted.
• Invalid Message — Displays to an end-user when something within the form submission is incorrect and can’t be sent.

By being able to edit the messages, you can have some fun and be quirky, or if you run a corporate site, you can be more business-like.

The best thing is as they are entirely editable, you can do what you want!

Step 6: Styling Your Elementor Contact Form

You don’t want your contact form to look bland or not match your website’s branding, do you? Luckily in Elementor, custom styling couldn’t be easier.

In the editor, click on the “Style tab“:

You’ll find a wide array of options and settings to personalize your contact form just as you need. Everything from spacing, padding, and colors, to the size of fields, labels, inputs, buttons, and everything else.

We’ll let you explore these options yourself. Needless to say, it couldn’t be easier to use them.

For example, if we want to change the Elementor button color we click on the “Button” drop-down to show the settings:

You can quickly set the background color of the button, the text color of the button, the hover color, and a whole assortment of options and settings.

Once you’re happy with how your form is styled, it’s time for the final step, publishing your form.

Step 7: Publishing Your Elementor Contact Form

Now everything is set up with your contact form just the way you want it, it’s time to publish your form to the world!

It couldn’t be easier.

At the bottom of the Elementor editor, click on the green “Update” button and your page will be updated with your brand new contact form.

Congratulations. You’ve successfully built and published a contact form with Elementor!

That’s not the end of the story though.

The above only works if you’re using Elementor Pro. It costs from $49, which, while a bargain for what is included, not everyone has $49 to spend on a plugin.

Fortunately there’s a range of free alternative contact form solutions you can use alongside Elementor.

When To Use The Paid Method

With Elementor Pro installed, you get over 300 design templates, 90+ widgets and 60+ website kits as well as premium support.

You also get complete control over your website customization. You can customize every page, post, sidebar, header, footer and even product pages if you are into eCommerce.

With Elementor Pro forms, you can integrate your forms with many popular email marketing tools that let you directly convert your audience into subscribers. This is a feature which comes only with the premium version of many contact plugins.

Sounds cool doesn’t it?

We highly recommend building your website completely with Elementor Pro. This is perhaps the better of the two methods to add contact forms to your website.

When Should You Not Use Elementor Pro

If all you need is a simple contact form on your website and you don’t need some of the premium features, you can skip purchasing Elementor Pro.

In the upcoming sections we will show you how to add a contact form to your website with the free version of Elementor.

Add Contact Form for Free in Elementor

This method is fairly simple. All you need to do is install a third-party contact form plugin that allows embedding with shortcodes.

Elementor is quite versatile when it comes to integrations and works well with most contact form WordPress plugins.

Before we go ahead and let you know about the exact process, have a look at the 4 best Elementor friendly contact form plugins.

Top 5 Elementor Friendly Contact Form Plugins

1. HubSpot

HubSpot’s WordPress plugin is a free all-in-one marketing plugin trusted by over 100,000 users. With the plugin, you can easily add forms, popups, live chat, analytics, and more to your WordPress site.

And the best part? Everything is automatically synced to the HubSpot CRM, giving you a centralized record of a contact’s interaction with your website.

Use HubSpot to add new forms and popups to your Elementor pages or automatically sync your existing forms into a CRM.

Price: Free

2. WPForms

WPForms has a mighty impressive 3+ million active installs.

It’s a freemium plugin where the base version is free, but there is a premium version available. While the free version offers many features you’d want and is fine for creating a basic contact form, many features are restricted to the Pro version.

Just like Contact Form 7, you can use the WPForms shortcodes for placing your contact form on an Elementor page (or any page for that matter).

And Ultimate Addons for Elementor also has a custom styling widget for WPForms as well!

Price: Free version and Pro version from $79.

3. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is one of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress. It’s completely free and has over 5 million active installs, which should tell you all you need to know!

While simple in terms of functionality, if all you need is a simple contact form, it’s well worth checking out.

You can use the built-in shortcodes to place any form on your pages and posts quickly and easily.

Our very own Ultimate Addons for Elementor has a Contact Form 7 Styler Widget if you want more control over the styling.

Price: Free

4. Forminator

Forminator is a freemium WordPress forms plugin by WPMU DEV. They are the developers of the popular Smush plugin, which has over 2 million active installs!

With an easy to use user interface, Forminator makes a great alternative to more well-known form plugins. And it comes with built-in PayPal and Stripe support.

Like the other plugins we mention here, it’s a breeze to add Forminator to your Elementor-powered page.

What’s more, if you purchase the Pro version of Forminator, you’ll also get access to hosting for 3 websites, SmartCrawlPro, Hustle Pro, and a whole host of other features for unlimited websites! Crazy good value at just $5/month.

Price: There is a free version and Forminator Pro costs from $5/month, including access to other plugins and hosting.

How to Embed a Contact Form in Elementor

You can use any of the contact form plugins listed above with Elementor. But for this contact form example, we will work with WP Forms.

Here’s how you embed a contact form with WP Forms and Elementor.

Step 1: Create A Contact Form

Install WP Forms using the usual method. Then go to WP Forms > Add new from your WordPress dashboard.

Here you can select a form from the given templates and name your form.

Step 2: Customize the Form

Now you can edit and add required fields into your contact form. You can also remove the fields that you do not want in this section.

Once you are done with the edits, you can click ‘Preview’ to check how the form looks.

If you are happy with the form, click ‘Save’ to save the changes.

Step 3: Create the Shortcode

Once you click embed, WP Forms asks if it should add the form for you in a certain page or post. Though it might seem like the easier option, we recommend you choose ‘use a shortcode’ link just below the buttons.

Once you click the link, it will generate a shortcode. Just copy the shortcode for now. We’re going to need it in the next step.

Step 4: Embedding the Form

Now’s the time to start editing.

Open up the page that you need and select ‘Edit with Elementor’.

In the Elementor widget, search for ‘shortcode’.

Select the Shortcode widget and drag it to the area where you want the form.

Paste the shortcode that you copied earlier into the widget. The form will then appear in the place where you positioned it on the page

If you are happy with the results, hit Update to save the page.

Another way to add the same form in Elementor is by searching for ‘WP Forms’ in Elementor widget search.

When you use any Elementor compatible plugin, it automatically creates a widget for it. It makes embedding much easier.

Drag the WPForms widget to the necessary place and select the form that you want.

This will give you the same result as the shortcode method.

Easy right?

Furthermore, you can use Elementor addons to design the overall form. For example, with Ultimate Addons for Elementor, you can style WPForms.

Final Thoughts

Building a contact form with Elementor doesn’t have to be complicated or take hours. All thanks to either Elementor Pro or a range of free plugins, creating a contact form with Elementor is both quick and straightforward.

Go ahead and try it yourself.

Do you have a preferred contact form plugin? Perhaps you’ve built your contact forms in Elementor already?

Let us know in the comments below.